PERU – St. Bede senior Ella Hermes brought some new equipment with her to Abbot Philip Davey Field on Monday against visiting Marquette, and the result was four hits in five at-bats, including a triple and two home runs.
“I just switched to new contacts with a new prescription,” Hermes said.
Along with her solid performance at the plate, the Bruins standout also fired a complete game, allowing just four hits and striking out 12 to help her team capture the regularly scheduled game 4-2 after winning the resumption of Thursday’s game 12-6.
Hermes hit a solo homer in the first inning to tie the game at 1, then smacked a tape-measure blast with a runner aboard in the third to give her squad the lead for good.
“I don’t think so,” Hermes said when asked if she’d ever hit a ball that far before. “I was just as surprised as everyone else.”
So was it the new contacts?
“Maybe that’s it,” Hermes said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve been hitting poorly lately, but nowhere near how I hit today. The second [homer] I was down 0-2, but I just felt very confident that if I got a pitch to hit something good was going to happen if I put a swing on it.”
Hermes allowed the Crusaders a run in the first when Hunter Hopkins reached on a slap single, stole second and scored on an RBI base hit off the bat of Avery Durdan.
Then in the seventh, Marquette scored on an error and RBI single by Hopkins, but Hermes was able to close out the game with a strikeout with the tying run at the plate.
“My curveball was really on today, and my riseball was also pretty effective,” Hermes said. “Those are normally my top two pitches anyway, but today I feel like they were a little better than usual.”
St. Bede’s fourth run of the game came in the fifth when Hermes reached on a dropped pop-up and scored on an infield single by Maddy Dalton.
“We talked a lot before the games about focusing on putting the ball in play,” St. Bede coach Shawn Sons said, his team now 14-2 overall and 9-0 in league play. “I feel like we have a lineup that if we can string a few singles together eventually the power will follow. I also feel our lineup, top to bottom, is one that when one girl is maybe not hitting well someone else steps up. I like to think that’s what makes us a tough team to pitch against. I feel like there really aren’t any easy outs.
“Ella really hit the ball well and pitched well all day. Sometimes really good players find a way to even elevate their game more. She did that today. “
The Marquette pitching duo of Maisie Lyons (3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and Anna Hjerpe (3 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) kept the Bruins (9-5, 6-2) within striking distance throughout the contest.
“We came out and played hard, competed, and that was great to see against a very good team in St. Bede,” Marquette coach Curtiss Johnson said. “I really thought overall we did a great job today. The completion of the game from Thursday kind of got away from us, but I really liked the way we kept them within striking distance in the regularly scheduled game. We had the tying run at the plate there in the seventh but just couldn’t get that next hit to keep things going.
“Anna and Maisie both did a great job of spinning and keeping them off-balance. They did exactly what we asked them to do and did it well. Overall, we can take a lot of positives from today despite the losses.”
In the completion of the suspended game that started with Marquette batting in the bottom of the fifth tied at 5, the Crusaders scored a run on a Kealey Rick RBI single to lead 6-5.
From there, an RBI triple by Hermes in the sixth and a three-run homer in the seventh by Tessa Dugosh helped the Bruins complete the victory.
