Tessa Krull brings ‘A’ game for Seneca at St. Bede

PERU - Tessa Krull knew it.

Seneca coach Brian Holman knew it

And the St. Bede softball team quickly found out.

Krull brought her “A” game to the circle Monday, pitching a one-hit shutout with 17 strikeouts to send the Irish to a 6-0 win over the Bruins at the Academy.

The junior Krull, who was an All-State second-team member as a sophomore, felt good from the very start.

“I think it transfers from warmups, then to the game and I know like, ‘I’m good,’ ” Krull said. “I was relying more on my spin pitches and not my fastball. I had to get my speed back, which I had today. And then my spin pitches work. So the mix of speeds and my fastball is what kept them off guard.”

Holman said it was an encouraging start for Krull, who had not been as sharp of late.

“The last two starts, we kind of joked Tessa brought her ‘C-minus’ stuff, but then everybody else was really fired up and ready to go and we beat two really good teams, Manteno and Morris,” Holman said of Krull, who raised her record to 18-0. “And today, we saw she had her ‘A’ game in the first game and it was like, ‘OK, we get a couple and we’re good.’

“She’s just about impossible (to hit) when’s she’s on. For a couple innings she had three or four pitches working. The last inning, we were able to go up, out, in. (Ava) Balestri is a really good hitter. We were able to buzz her in, come up and away and that just makes it hard. Nice to see it tonight, and we’ll need it going forward.”

The win clinched the Tri-County Conference championship with the Irish improving to 28-0 overall, 13-0 atop the league with Tuesday’s home game with St. Bede remaining.

“It’s so exciting. I love being on this team. They’re so fun,” Krull said.

Lexie Bluis gave Krull the only runs she would need with a two-out, two-run blast to right-center in the top of the first inning to stake the Irish to an early 2-0 lead. Krull appreciated the early lead before she took the circle.

“Always having security runs makes you feel way better going out to the mound to pitch,” Krull said, noting she’s never surprised when Bluis hits home runs.

Seneca's Alyssa Zellers steals third base as St. Bede's Morgan Mercer applies a late tag on Monday, May 12, 2025 at St. Bede Academy. (Scott Anderson)

The Irish went back to work in the third, starting with a leadoff single by Alyssa Zellers. She eventually scored on a beauty of a suicide squeeze by Camryn Stecken.

Hayden Pfeifer added a RBI single and Krull helped her own cause with a two-run single to put the Irish up 6-0.

“That’s what makes us pretty tough to play. We can do a little bit of everything. We can get a squeeze bunt, get a home run,” Holman said.

St. Bede coach Rob Ruppert said Krull was especially tough to hit Monday.

“She’s one of the top pitchers in the area if not the state,” he said. “She throws the ball really hard and we struggled against her. I was happy with the way our defense played. They hit the ball had, but we played really well defensively.

“One bad inning really. We were right in the game the other six innings. I’m happy with the way we played.”

Holman said St. Bede pitcher Molly Strauch did a nice job keeping the Irish off balance at the plate and that St. Bede right fielder Quinn McClain was spectacular in the field.

“Their right fielder made four outstanding plays. (If it’s) your average right fielder, we got three or four more runs if they drop in and we’re running all over the place,” he said.

“Quinn played a heck of a game out there. She got a great jump on the ball and made a lot of plays,” Ruppert said.

Krull also led the Irish at the plate, going 2 for 3 game with two RBIs.

Lilli McClain had St. Bede’s only hit of the day with a sharp single to left in the fourth inning. She was the only base runner of the day for the Bruins (13-11, 9-4).

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