Softball: Rosary’s Cara Smoczynski mows down St Edward
Updated: May 2, 2012 7:29PM
Cara Smoczynski had it going Wednesday for Rosary 4-1 Suburban Christian victory over visiting St. Edward.
The junior right-hander threw a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts and no walks to lift her record to 7-6 and went 3-for-4 at the plate, raising her season batting average to .410.
“I just go out there and try to get every single batter and focus on every single pitch,” said Smoczynski, who now has 119 strikeouts in 94 innings. “I’m working on location. Today I was throwing just fastballs a lot, but the curve and change were working, too.”
She was staked to a 4-0 lead after one inning and then cruised in the circle.
“Give credit to their pitcher for firing it in there, but at the same time, we were swinging at stuff we shouldn’t and letting the good stuff go,” said St. Edward coach jack Corn, whose team fell to 7-15 and 5-8.
The Green Wave managed to hit just two balls out of the infield.
“We need a little more emphasis on discipline (at the plate),” Corn said. “They’ve gotta learn the strike zone better.”
Samantha Phelps had a two-run single and Katherine Witte added an RBI single to highlight Rosary’s fast start, which was fueled by a pair of St. Edward errors.
“The first inning we came out really hitting the ball well and then we got a little bit flat,” Smoczynski said.
Rosary had runners aboard in every inning after that off pitcher Morgin Coughlin, who stranded eight runners in going the distance.
“We came out like a house afire today, we just didn’t hit after that,” said Rosary coach John Kazmierczak, whose team climbed to 8-16-1 and 6-6. “I don’t know what it is, we hit better against high-velocity kids than we do against (pitchers) who don’t have much smoke.”
Kates Groom had two of Rosary’s 10 hits and Lauren Murray doubled.
“We’ve gotta come ready to play in the first inning,” Corn said. “Defensively, it has been a struggle. We had the errors in the first inning and helped them score those four runs and then we were able to tighten it up, but we didn’t bring the bats.”
The Green Wave scored their run in the fourth when Kali Kossakowski reached on an infield single, stole second and third and came home on Ryann Scully’s RBI single.
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