The Gehlen Catholic softball team cruised to a big War Eagle Conference win over MMCRU in Cleghorn on Friday by the score of 13-0 in six innings.
The Gehlen offense had struggled earlier in the week getting shut out by George-Little Rock on Monday. They scored four runs in the third inning and nine runs in the sixth inning on Friday to down MMCRU. Gehlen Catholic head coach Tony Kerkvliet says he was pleasantly surprised by the result.
The offensive outburst was emphasized by a great pitching performance from Kennedy Paulson who faced the minimum 18 batters allowing just one hit in six innings. Coach Kerkvliet says she had all of her pitches working well.
She held an MMCRU offense that was hitting over .400 as a team in check both times through the order. MMCRU head coach Kelly Tentinger says it was a bit surprising that her team could not execute well.
Outside of the two big innings, the MMCRU defense was able to handle Gehlen pretty well. Coach Tentinger says that was due to some strong play defensively behind Chloe Alesch.
Gehlen Catholic made a lot of their damage on the scoreboard with two outs in the inning. Coach Kerkvliet says he was happy to see the team execute late in innings.
MMCRU fell to 9-8 overall this season and 3-4 in the War Eagle Conference with the loss. Coach Tentinger says this is a good time to go over a few things with her team offensively so they can get back to what was working earlier in the season.
Gehlen Catholic improved to 9-7 on the season and 6-2 in the War Eagle Conference with the win. The win was also the 350th for coach Kerkvliet who says he has been fortunate to coach some great teams over the years.
Gehlen Catholic returns to the diamond Monday in Hinton to take on the Blackhawks while MMCRU is back in action on Monday in Remsen against George-Little Rock.
