POWER SURGE: Seneca blasts 4 homers against Marquette in TCC victory

SENECA – The Seneca softball team has scored about 11 runs per game this season, but many of those runs haven’t come from the long ball.

That was until Tuesday’s Tri-County Conference game against rival Marquette.

The Fighting Irish hit four home runs – one each by the first four hitters in the lineup, Alyssa Zellers, Emma Mino, Camryn Stecken and Lexie Buis – to back the pitching of Tessa Krull in an 11-1 victory over the Crusaders in five innings.

“We really haven’t hit many home runs this season, and it’s been one of our fan base’s complaints,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said with a laugh. “We’ve had some cold games and others where the wind has blown in, which tends to make the ball not carry. Today was a great day to hit, and once we found our timing everything fell into place.”

The win kept Seneca’s unbeaten streak alive at 24 games, 11 in the TCC.

Seneca scored in the second inning when Audry McNabb singled off Marquette (18-5, 6-4 TCC) starting and losing pitcher Taylor Cuchra (3⅓ IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K), stole second and scored on an error. The visitors tied the game in the third on a no-doubt-about-it home run to center by Kelsey Cuchra, her eighth of the season.

From there Krull (5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K) retired the final seven batters she faced.

Seneca took the lead for good in the third on a two-run homer by Zellers, and two outs later, a solo home run to right by Buis to make it 4-1.

“I wasn’t trying to hit a home run, but I was trying to put the ball in play, mainly up the middle and just hit it as hard as I could,” Zellers said. “Taylor has a really good curveball, but I also know she’s going to try and pitch me fastballs inside to set up the curve on the outside. Down 1-2 with the last pitch I saw outside, I was looking for the pitch in and was telling myself ‘quick hands.’ I guess it worked out.”

The Irish had a two-run blast to left by Mino, followed by a solo homer by Stecken off reliever Savanah Erickson (1⅓ IP, 5 H, 3 ER) to make it 8-1.

“We’ve had games in the past with Marquette where we haven’t added on, and they’ve come back on us,” Holman said. “Today the message was to keep the pressure on the entire game. I thought we did a great job of that.

“Tessa did a good job of settling in. We feel like if we can give her a lead she’s going to really bear down and get the job done for us. We mixed in a couple of really nice defensive plays [a diving catch by McNabb in the first and leftfielder Graysen Provance’s retreating grab near the fence in the fifth] which was great to see.”

Seneca closed out the game in the fifth with two outs when Mino lined a two-run single down the right field line and scored after a pair of throwing errors.

“Seneca just hit the snot out of the ball today and few went over the fence, so credit them,” Marquette coach Curtiss Johnson said. “I didn’t think we made many mistakes defensively until that last play, and they just hit the ball hard and far. Some days that how it goes. [Seneca] makes you as a pitcher have to throw a little more fine than normal.

“These are learning-moment games. This isn’t a team we’ll play in the postseason, but it’s a really good team that gives us another chance to prepare for when we get there. If we want to get where we want to come regional time, we hopefully will take some things from today and use them.”

Marquette is home on Thursday with a rematch against Seneca.