After her first at-bat in Tuesday’s Interstate 8 Conference game against Ottawa, La Salle-Peru senior Anna Riva knew she had to make some adjustments.

“My first at-bat I was dropping my hands, just swinging to swing and struck out,” Riva said. “My second at-bat I just kept telling myself to keep my hands up, keep my weight back and just wait for the pitch to come to me.”

Then in the fourth with two outs, Riva smashed a 2-2 pitch from Pirates’ ace Addie Russell down the line and over the left field fence for a two-run homer to put the Cavaliers ahead for good in a 3-1 victory.

“I’m pretty sure it was a riseball, and really it was the same pitch in the same spot I had struck out against my first time up,” Riva said. “It felt great off the bat, I just knew it was gone.”

The win improved L-P to 12-8 overall and 1-2 in I-8 play, while Ottawa fell to 8-5 and 2-1.

The visitors grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first as Kelsey Frederick walked to lead off the game, advanced to second on a ground out, and scored on a Makenzie Chamberlain line drive single to right.

The hosts quickly tied the contest in their half of the inning as freshman Teagan Darif homered off L-P pitcher Taylor Vescogni just inside the left field foul pole.

“I knew [Darif] has been hitting really well this season, but her being a freshman I really wasn’t sure how to pitch to her having not faced her before,” Vescogni said. “I left a change-up out over the plate and she didn’t miss it.”

It was the lone blemish on the day for Vescogni, who finished the complete-game effort allowing just five hits, while walking none and striking out 13.

“I felt good the whole game, but after Ava’s home run to put us up two it really relaxed me,” Vescogni said. “I knew the last few innings I didn’t have to be perfect.

“I felt like my change-up overall was pretty good and really paired well with my riseball. I’ve pitched against a lot of the Ottawa players, so I have a pretty good idea of how I want to pitch them. But today I felt like if I really needed a key pitch I was going to go off-speed.”

In the L-P fourth, Russell struck out the first two hitters before Vescogni singled to center ahead of Riva’s blast.

Russell finished also allowing just five hits while walking two and striking out eight in her seven innings in the circle.

Ottawa was able to put its leadoff batter on base and move them up to second base in the second, fourth, and fifth innings. But the second ended with a caught stealing at third and the fourth closed on a line drive double play.

Chamberlain finished with two of the Cavs’ five hits, while Ottawa’ Piper Lewis and Resse Purcell each had a pair of singles.

“I thought Addie pitched pretty well, I thought we played solid defense, but the key in my mind was we just didn’t put enough balls in play today,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “We put ourselves into some possible scoring chances with getting the leadoff on and to second but just weren’t able to get the next hit we needed.

“Taylor and Addie get similar results but in different ways. Taylor is going to pile up strikeouts with the stuff she has, and Addie is going to get a majority of her outs on weak contact. They both did the things that make them successful. It’s one of those games you know going in the chances to score are going to be very limited and they were.”

Both teams are scheduled back in action in I-8 games on Wednesday with L-P hosting Rochelle and Ottawa traveling to take on Sycamore.