Rockets power past Thunder

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WOODSTOCK – Richmond-Burton senior catcher Miranda Burns watched Woodstock North pitcher Rebecca Einspahr release the pitch and silently counted.

One Mississippi – and gone.

Burns smacked a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth that capped a
12-hit performance and helped the Rockets to an 11-0,
six-inning win against the Thunder in an IHSA Class 3A Woodstock North Regional semifinal.

The second-seeded Rockets advanced to face top-seeded Prairie Ridge for a regional title at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“Oh yeah, it felt good,” said Burns, who went 2 for 4 with three RBIs. “I normally have problems hitting slower pitching, but I got up there and ... it was gone. My body did the rest of the work, just making myself slow down and waiting for the ball to come into my zone. Right when I heard it, right when I felt it, I knew it was gone.”

It was that kind of a day for R-B (14-18).

The Rockets tagged Woodstock North starter Kendyl Schwebke for six runs in the first inning. Senior second baseman Caitlin Richert (4 for 4) started her day with a double to left center that drove in Dana Kirkegaard.

Errors doomed the Thunder (10-23) for much of the inning; only two of R-B’s runs were earned. Freshman shortstop Lily Mazzanti tripled with two outs to drive in Lauren Smith and Brandi Chaney, who had singled, and stake pitcher Jessica Kerns to a 6-0 lead.

Kerns faced 21 batters in six innings, allowing two hits.

“I hit all my spots just throwing what the coach was calling,” Kerns said.

Einspahr relieved Schwebke in the second and kept R-B off the board until the fourth, when Richert sent a one-out fastball over the fence in center field for the second home run of her career, putting R-B up, 7-0.

Woodstock North coach Kristin Kulpinski was disappointed three of her players, junior pitcher Nikki Greenhill, junior infielder Natalie Bruchsaler and freshman shortstop Bria Romine, were injured – Greenhill last week and Bruchsaler and Romine during Wednesday’s game.

Still, the Thunder made great strides in their first varsity season, she said.

“I told them at the end of the game [that] the thing I want most is a group that works really hard and that believes,” said Kulpinski, “and this is the nicest group of girls you’ll ever be blessed with.”