Lauren Harbison pitches Henry-Senachwine past Marquette for second straight day

OTTAWA – Coming off the previous day’s complete-game shutout win, Henry-Senachwine senior pitcher Lauren Harbison had a sample size scouting report heading into Tuesday’s Tri-County Conference rematch with Marquette.

She knew, however, she’d have to make adjustments.

“After facing (Marquette on Monday), I knew where I didn’t want to pitch some of their batters today,” Harbison said. “I knew today was going to be more difficult after they’d seen me three or four at-bats (Monday) and would have a little better timing. The key today was hitting my spots, and I felt like I did that pretty well.”

The Mallards’ hard-throwing right-hander put together another solid complete-game outing, allowing six hits, two earned runs with one walk and 10 strikeouts in an 8-2 victory at June Gross Field.

Henry-Senachwine (10-2, 6-2) backed Harbison with eight hits, including two each from Lexi Serpette and Rylan Davis.

“I also knew we’d score runs today. We’ve been getting better and better with our bats,” Harbison said. “Knowing that as a pitcher gives you confidence, knowing a mistake here or there isn’t going to be a big deal. Add that to my defense making all the plays behind me, the last two days have been awesome.”

The visitors grabbed the lead in the top of the first on a two-run home run to right-center off the bat of Kaitlyn Anderson. Marquette made it 2-1 in their half of the frame on an RBI double by Kelsey Cuchra.

The Mallards then scored three in the third on a bases-loaded, two-out double by Davis and three more in the fourth on an RBI single by Brynna Anderson and a two-run double by Serpette to make it 8-1.

“We are starting to finally play games, and our bats are starting to show that,” H-S coach Lori Stenstrom said. “Earlier in the season, we play a game, then we’d have three or four or more days sometimes because of weather or something we wouldn’t play. It’s hard to find rhythm when that happens.

“Being able to consistently be able to play games the last two weeks has helped. I thought we had some really good at-bats in key situations today. A few times when we needed to really just put the ball in play, we did, and when you do that good things happen. Along with Lauren throwing another great game, our defense was really good as well.”

Marquette closed out the game’s scoring in the bottom of the fourth when Taylor Cuchra doubled and scored on a base hit by Avery Durdan.

Marquette’s Kinley Rick (3⅔ IP, 5 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 6 BB, 5 K) took the loss, while Savanah Erickson came on in relief and fired 3⅓ scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three.

“(Harbison) is a really good pitcher, but we didn’t make the adjustments we needed to make today against her, and she took advantage,” Marquette coach Curtiss Johnson said, his club falling to 14-3 overall and 4-2 in league play. “We chased a few too many pitches out of the zone and then didn’t do a very good job of cutting down our swings with two strikes to put the ball in play. On Monday we didn’t come out ready to go, were very slow, and today while it was a better energy, it still wasn’t close to where it needed to be.

“Savanah came in a did an excellent job of giving us a chance. She was able to keep them off the scoreboard the final three innings, but we just couldn’t get a whole lot going offensively to get back in it.”

Hunter Hopkins and Kelsey Cuchra each finished with two hits for the hosts.

Both squads are scheduled back in action Thursday. Henry-Senachwine hosts Fieldcrest, while Marquette travels to take on St. Bede.