After watching his sophomore pitcher strike out the side in the first inning, head coach Bill Finucane had a feeling Samantha Claire was in for a special night.
“I mentioned it to Reese (Pattison) in the first inning that she’s (Claire) really throwing good, and Reese said, ‘Yes, she is,’” Finucane said. “She was just bringing it and you could tell in the first inning. Her speed was up really good. They were having a tough time catching up to the ball.”
Claire finished the game without allowing a hit and struck out 18 Paola batters Tuesday night. In five of the seven innings she pitched during the second game of the doubleheader, Claire struck out three batters.
The Cardinals won the game 7-0.
Like she said about her performance last Thursday, Claire said it helps to have a trustworthy defense behind her.
“It feels good,” Claire said of her performance. “I think that a lot of it’s my defense, too. I think that with them behind you it just makes you feel good.”
Junior Rylee Griffin also dominated during the first game of the Cardinals’ doubleheader. Griffin went all seven innings and struck out 11 as the Cardinals won that game 9-1.
On a windy night with some gusts up to 40 mph, Finucane said that played into Griffin’s favor.
“Her movement is so good. It’s an advantage to her to have wind like this,” he said. “But Rylee threw the ball great. Only one run. She’s got three wins now.”
Claire said her and Griffin’s success just comes with putting in the effort.
“I feel like we’ve put a lot of work in this season,” Claire said. “We know that we have to work and that’s what we had to do.”
After Paola scored its only run in the first game to tie the game heading into the fifth inning, the Cardinals had the top of the lineup coming up and knew it was time for the offense to wake up.
The players talked to each other and tried to hype each other up ahead of the inning.
“The coaches felt that the energy was kind of flat until we got into that inning,” Finucane said. “We asked them to get the energy up, and let’s see what we can do. And they responded.”
The Cardinals went on to score eight runs in the fifth inning.
Finucane said once the team starts a rally, they are hard to stop.
“You always hear ‘hitting is contagious,’ and with this group it seems once we start it seems to keep rolling, which is a good thing,” Finucane said.
After the first two batters reached for the Cardinals, Pattison hit a two-run single to start things off.
Then, Griffin helped herself out by hustling on a ground ball that forced Paola to error, which plated another run.
Following that play, juniors Lilly Rife and Kenzie Yoder, and sophomores Katie Courter and Alexia Born each had hits that scored runs.
Born, who had two hits in the inning, said the energy the Cardinals had before the rally helped her do well in the inning.
“I just listened to the other players and the coaches helped me a lot giving me the motivation,” Born said. “Reese in the on-deck circle is always cheering me up. It’s always that ‘make sure you breathe factor’ and everything.”
The scoring was more evenly distributed for the Cardinals in the second game.
After a leadoff walk by Courter, Born drove her in on a triple in the first inning. Born then scored on a ground ball hit by sophomore Jaiden Burris.
Pattison drove in a run in the third inning with a single that scored Born again to make the score 3-0.
Finally in the sixth inning, Burris doubled to score a run. Rife then scored Burris on a ground ball to cap off the night.
The Cardinals will play one game against Tonganoxie starting at 6:15 p.m. Thursday.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
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