Marquette’s Taylor Cuchra fires three-hit shutout against St. Edward

SERENA — The Marquette softball team grabbed the momentum in the very first inning of Wednesday’s Class 1A Serena Sectional semifinal against St. Edward and didn’t let it go.

The Crusaders scored five runs in their initial at-bats — starting with a clutch two-out RBI single by Avery Durdan — and senior pitcher Taylor Cuchra fired a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts in an 8-0 triumph over the Green Wave.

“Avery’s hit was a big one and really got us going,” Marquette coach Curtiss Johnson said. “To be able to put a rally together with two outs in the very first inning was a nice confidence boost. Then Taylor just attacked hitters today and that was the game plan, to go right after them. She followed the game plan exactly like we talked about.”

Marquette (28-6) — which matched the program’s 2017 squad for most wins in a season — advances to Friday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game against the host Huskers. The Crusaders defeated Serena 13-3 in five innings back on March 26.

St. Edward finished the season at 16-15.

Hunter Hopkins opened the game with an infield single off St. Edward junior pitcher Alaina Nolan and stole second before Durdan’s aforementioned base hit to left center. Makayla Backos singled, and a Kealey Rick double scored Durdan to make it 2-0. A St. Edward throwing error scored two more before an RBI knock by Lily Brewer made it 5-0.

“These girls prepare the right way and really have been preparing all season for these opportunities and to hopefully reach our full potential,” Johnson said. “I thought collectively we had an excellent approach in the batter’s box all game long. (Nolan) is a very good pitcher, she has over 600 strikeouts in her career and tops out a 65-66 mph. The message was we had to put the ball in play and the girls executed that pretty well today.”

Taylor Cuchra fanned the side in both the second and third, then retired 12 of the final 15 batters she faced.

“Yep, the plan was to go right at them and that’s how I like to pitch,” said Cuchra, who walked two and threw 73 of her 107 pitches for strikes. “I like to try and get batter’s out as quickly as I can, to do that I have to get ahead and hit my spots. I felt like I did both those pretty good today.

“I have a ton of faith in my defense behind me, and they were really good today as well.”

With Taylor Cuchra dealing, Marquette scored a run in the fourth on a throwing error, then two in the sixth, one on an RBI from Kelsey Cuchra.

Hopkins, Durdan and Brewer each had two of the Crusaders 10 hits on the day.

St. Edward, which had only one runner advance past second base, was led by a single and triple from Sarah Gurley. Nolan took the loss, allowing five earned runs, walking two and fanning six.

“We figured we’d have to keep it a lowing scoring game, so when Marquette scored those five runs right off the bat, we knew it was going to tough,” St. Edward assistant coach Erv Grenand said. “We just weren’t able to get much going with the bats.”