SENECA – The softball round robin Saturday at Seneca High School revealed three solid teams all capable of winning.

Each did just that, with Seneca, Morris and Herscher all earning a victory and suffering a defeat.

Morris 12, Seneca 2 (5 inn.)

Morris (21-6) showed no signs of fatigue after winning its 20th game Friday at Oregon, as it pounded out 13 hits on the way to a dominating 12-2, five-inning victory over the current Class 2A No. 12-ranked Irish (18-6).

“We didn’t get back home until 11 o’clock or so last night, and it was definitely challenging to get ready to compete again so quickly,” Morris coach Jen Bamonte said. “Our girls really brought the energy, and the last few games are really heating up the way they should be. It’s really unfortunate what happened in the first inning, but we dealt with a scary moment and went on to beat a very tough Seneca team to start off the triangular on a great note.”

What provided some anxious moments for everyone in attendance came with two outs in the bottom of the first inning. Seneca freshman pitcher Tessa Krull took a blistering line drive off the chin of her protective face mask. Fortunately, Krull’s protection kept her from serious harm, but she had to leave the game in lieu of classmate Cam Stecken, who closed out the initial frame scoreless after the tense happenings.

“When your starting pitcher gets hit so hard in the mask like that, we just emotionally needed to regroup, and it took a couple of innings for us to do that,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said. “Morris is a very good softball team, and they really piled it on us in the second and third innings. We could never recover after that.”

Alyssa Zellers (two hits, two runs) led off against Morris starting pitcher Ella Davis with a single down the right-field line, then stole second base. Kennedy Hartwig’s infield groundout pushed Zellers to third with one out before Sam Vandevelde’s RBI sacrifice bunt plated Zellers to give the Irish a 1-0 lead after one inning.

But Morris unloaded offensively in the second and third with 11 runs. Five came in the second stanza after an RBI from Addison Stacy, two off the bat of Elaina Vidales (two hits), one from Davis (three hits) and another from Aylssa Jepsen (two hits) to put Morris ahead 5-1.

The visitors added six more in the top of the third courtesy of a run-scoring triple to the fence in right from Kayla Jepson, an RBI infield single off the bat of Karson Dransfeldt (two hits) and another two-run base knock from Vidales, who finished her fine day with four RBIs that helped lift Morris to an 11-1 lead after 2 1/2 innings.

“I felt like I saw the ball really well today, and I’m pretty happy batting in the No. 2 spot,” Vidales said. “I had the chance to drive in a bunch of runs when I needed to, so it was a nice day for me at the plate.”

Seneca tallied its last run in the bottom of the third after an RBI from Kennedy Hartwig to close the gap to 11-2.

Morris upped the ante to 12-2 in the top of the fourth after Stacy’s RBI at-bat before Davis (5 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 3 K, 2 BB) earned her 19th win in the circle against only four defeats by retiring the Irish in order in the bottom of the fifth.

“Seneca’s a very tough team, but today I just threw pitches like I normally do and as always relied on my defense behind me to make plays,” Davis said. “It was tough having to come back after getting back so late last night, but it was well worth it with a big win like this.”

Herscher 6, Morris 1

After the strong start against Seneca, Morris (21-7) dropped a tough one to Class 2A, No. 19-ranked Herscher (20-6).

Davis (6 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 6 K, 2 BB) picked up the pitching loss. Morris committed four errors and couldn’t string any hits together after the big offensive outburst versus the Irish. Davis, Dranfeldt, Stacy, Alyssa Jepson, Addy Hackett and Kylee Claypool each added hits for Morris.

Seneca 6, Herscher 3

The Irish responded after their unsettling first-game loss to Morris by scoring four runs in the sixth to end their day by downing the Tigers.

Zellers produced a go-ahead two-run double with two outs in the frame that put Seneca ahead for good. Hartwig added three hits and two RBIs, while Audry McNabb posted two hits, a double and a run-scoring at-bat.

Remarkably, Krull came back in the circle to earn the victory after a near disaster earlier as the Irish (19-6) produced incredible resiliency.

“The girls showed a lot of toughness to bounce back after a tough game one,” Holman said. “It was a fun triangular with three really good teams on a great day to play softball.”