La Salle-Peru’s leadoff batter, Kelsey Frederick, had one of those tough-luck at-bats to start Tuesday’s game at Newark.

“I’ve recently been in a little bit of a slump, and my first at-bat I hit the very first strike I saw, but it was a line drive right at the second baseman, which was very frustrating,” Frederick said.

The senior’s second time at the plate in the second inning she smacked a no-doubt-about-it, two-run homer well over the center field fence.

“I just let my first at-bat go, erased it from my mind and went up to the plate focused,” Frederick said. “It just felt so good off the bat, and I knew I had gotten all of it.

“It was just very satisfying to finally kind of get back on track.”

The Cavaliers (8-6) finished with half of their 14 hits on the day going for extra bases in a 17-3, five-inning victory over the Norsemen (4-5).

“As a team we had a great positive vibe today,” Frederick said. “We had a couple of really hard-hit balls in the first inning, and I think everyone’s confidence grew a little. There have been a lot of games this season so far where we have left so many runners on and have not been able to get that next hit. That wasn’t the case today.”

La Salle-Peru scored three time in the first off Newark starting and losing pitcher Sadie Pottinger, with Anna Riva lining a two-run double to left.

Newark responded with two in their half of the frame on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Adelaide Johnson and Pottinger after Rylie Carlson and Zoey Carlson recorded consecutive singles off L-P starting and winning pitcher Claire Boudreau (5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K).

“I thought we played a very solid game in all three phases, especially with the bats,” La Salle-Peru coach Randy Huebbe said. “I feel like for most of this season so far, we haven’t been as aggressive as we need to be at the plate. ... We’ve just taken too many good pitches.

“We didn’t do that today.”

After Frederick’s aforementioned blast in the second, the Cavaliers scored five times in the both the third and fourth. The third saw a two-run double from Dagny Greer and a two-run triple by Frederickson, and the fourth off Rylie Carlson in relief, RBIs from Makenzie Chamberlain, Brie Ruppert, Sophia Pyszka and Lydia Steinbach.

“We all had a nice conversation right after pregame infield today about being ready to swing and swinging hard when the pitch is in the zone,” Huebbe said. “The girls really did an excellent job of that, and my hope is this is something we do the rest of the season now. We really hit some balls hard today, and it was great to see.”

The hosts scored a run in the fourth on a Brooklyn Wallin RBI single before L-P added two more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Brooklyn Pelka and a run-scoring groundout by April Pescetto.

“I think for Cayla and Rylie, they are both sophomores, so they are still figuring things out,” Newark coach Jon Wood said. “I think today they both saw that you’re not always trying to throw a pitch for a strike. There is a difference between just throwing and pitching. Today was a great learning experience for both of them. There were a few times they were ahead in the count and didn’t hit their spot, and good hitters are going to take advantage of that.

“There were positives for us today. Like I said, our pitchers gained experience facing really good hitters, and they learned from it. We were able put some good at-bats together and get a few solid hits off a really good pitcher.

“This was a great learning day for us, and hopefully we can just keep improving with every game we play.”

L-P is back in action Wednesday hosting Sycamore in an Interstate 8 Conference game.

Newark is off until Thursday when it entertains Batavia.