The Rochester Baseball team started in a little struggle going 1-4 in their first 5 games with losses to Normal U-High, Joliet Catholic and two to Mt. Zion. The team was off to not a great start. After the rough start, the team went 3-0 in their last 3 games with wins against Lincoln (13-1), Lanphier (14-0), and SHG (3-2). The win against Lincoln really propelled the team because we were not hitting great beforehand. We tallied 8 hits with 3 homeruns. The energy and confidence carried over to Lanphier, which wasn’t the toughest opponent but everyone was able to string hits together. The team had a total of 11 hits in just 4 innings. Along with the hits, we had 5 stolen bases and every one was able to get in the game and play. Rochester’s pitchers only allowed 4 hits through 5 innings with zero runs and only 1 walk.
Wednesday’s game against SHG is what really helped the team with their confidence and energy once again. It was a conference game and every one was looking forward to it.
The Rockets got an early lead with scoring in the bottom of the 1st with 2 runs. We let up a run in the 2nd and 3rd and was tied until the 6th inning. This game was a pitchers duel with the SHG pitcher allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks and 12 strikeouts in 5.1 innings. He was pounding the strike zone and kept hitters off balance a lot of the time. He got dialed in after the 1st inning and didn’t allow too many baserunners after that. Everything changed when Ajay Runkel, me, hit a homerun in the bottom of the 6th to put us ahead 3-2. I was also pitching that game and was so pumped up and had a huge adrenaline rush going into the last inning.
The last inning started great with a strikeout. I had a kid in a 1-2 count and allowed a single to center field. With one runner on, I struck out the next guy, now there are 2 outs. I get the batter to swing and miss for the 3rd out and the crowd and team was super excited to get the win over conference rivals SHG. My final pitching stats were 8 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts while pitching a complete game.
The team is looking good and really wanting to propel their game to the next level.
