HTC girls rebound with win over WB-ND

WEST BURLINGTON — West Burlington-Notre Dame pitcher Madelyn Thomas shut out Holy Trinity for the first five innings of Thursday’s game.
The Crusaders, though, thought they would eventually get to Thomas, and they did.
Ellie Hellman’s two-run single capped a three-run sixth inning in Holy Trinity’s 4-1 win in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division game at Barb Carter Field.
The Crusaders (13-4 overall, 4-3 division) trail division leader Mediapolis by a half-game, and left feeling better from a bounce-back win after Tuesday’s home loss to the Bullettes.
“It feels good, because I told them we've got a lot of really good games this week, really tough teams to play, and good teams bounce back after a loss,” Holy Trinity coach Loren Menke said. “Mediapolis is a good team, it's not a loss that we’re hanging our heads on. We played OK, we didn't play our best, but I said let's bounce back and let's play another good team and let's beat them. And we did.”
Holy Trinity had four hits in the first two innings against Thomas, but couldn’t score. She then retired 10 consecutive hitters from the second inning through the fifth, but, Hellman said, the Crusaders were making contact.
“I think we had a lot of good timing,” Hellman said. “You saw some outs where we were just on the cusp of maybe getting a hit, and I think you saw in the sixth inning that things started to click.”
“We were getting baserunners early,” Menke said. “We just weren’t getting them in. But yeah, we broke it open in the sixth.”
Alivia Holmes singled to lead off the inning, then Sydney Jarvis walked. Makayla Simpson was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases, then Claire Crabtree followed with a sacrifice fly to deep right field that scored Holmes to tie the game at 1.

“Big props to Claire,” Hellman said. “She got that thing started, and just takes one run, and that type of mindset, that shift, really opens it up for the rest of us.”
The Crusaders then pulled off a double steal, with Hellman faking a bunt, to put runners on second and third.
“Our baserunning tonight was phenomenal, like stealing third, faking the bunt, that type of tense situation. Being able to do that and execute that well really shows how our baserunning has improved and has been really good so far this season.”
Hellman then hit a line drive that fell in left-center field to score Jarvis and Simpson, and the Crusaders had the lead.
“I just wanted a pitch to drive,” Hellman said. “We have a saying, ‘Do your job.’ You have runners on, you want to get them in. You’re looking for a pitch that you can send out there and get the runners home.”
Cadyn Holmes’ double in the seventh inning drove in Alivia Holmes to close the scoring.
Jarvis allowed a first-inning run when Thomas’ double scored Orayana Gonzalez, but she would give up just two hits the rest of the game, retiring 12 of the last 13 hitters she faced.
“She’s been great,” said Hellman, Jarvis’ catcher. “Her change-ups tonight were awesome. She keeps her head in the game, makes great pitches, hits great spots. You can't give her enough praise because she always pulls through, always does an amazing job.”
“They have a tough lineup, and she only gave up one run to them,” Menke said. “I've been looking at a lot of their scores, and they've had some high-scoring games. But she came in tonight and pitched well, like she has been all season.”