SOFTBALL: Sterling bats heat up in win over Rock Falls

ROCK FALLS -- They were hitting at the top of the lineup. They were hitting at the bottom of the lineup. Even players who weren’t in the batting order to start the game were getting their hits for Sterling on Saturday in a 13-1, six-inning win over Rock Falls.

A couple of the biggest hits came from Sterling’s No. 3 and No. 5 hitters in the second and third innings.

With two out in the top of the second, after Sterling has scored a pair of runs in the first inning and scored two more earlier in the second to make it 4-0, Golden Warriors shortstop Amaiya Hernandez twice hit long balls that hooked foul down the line in left. She got another chance later in the at bat, and this time kept it fair for a two-run homer.

“I knew I was a little early, so I just had to wait on it a tiny-bit more,” Hernandez said. “I’ve been working outside of softball, in the gym, lifting weights, I think it’s showing on the field. I’m in the swing of things now that we’re in the middle of the season.”

Elizabeth Palumbo then led off the top of the third with a solo home run, her third of the season.

“I was focusing on just relaxing,” she said. “I feel like relaxing helps me the most, just focusing on getting a base hit, line drives.”

Sterling’s bottom third of the order came through with a couple of big hits, with No. 7 hitter Ellie Liegh leading off the second with a double and scoring when No. 9 hitter Katie Dittmar hit a sacrifice fly to center. Dittmar later drove in Hannah Jacoby with an RBI single in the third.

Sterling (8-2) also got offensive production from reserve players. Sienna Stingley came on to pitch in relief of Palumbo in the fourth and led off the fifth with a single. That led to a run when Jacoby doubled to drive in courtesy-runner Olivia Melcher. Stingley also singled and drove in a run in the sixth.

Brooklyn Borum, brought in to pinch hit in the sixth, contributed an RBI single to drive in Lauren Jacobs and later scored.

“They’re being more aggressive at the plate,” Sterling coach Becky Edmondson said. “We’ve scored a lot of runs the last couple of games we’ve played, so they have a pretty good, positive feeling when they get up to the plate. They’re just having good approaches.”

Against that veteran lineup, the Rockets sent out a sophomore, Whiles, to start and had a freshman, Nicolette Udell relieve her in the sixth.

“We’ve got two really young girls who don’t have a ton of experience in the circle pitching because we have two pitchers injured on the sideline,” Rockets coach Kris Smith said. “The approach was throw strikes and rely on the defense to do the best that they can. We’re so young we just have a lot to learn yet. Even against a team like Sterling who’s pounding the ball at you, they keep good attitudes. You keep good attitudes and keep working hard like that, you’re going to get better and better, and I think it will bode well by the end of the year.”

Palumbo started for the Warriors and worked three innings, striking out four and walking one, allowing no runs and one hit, a single by Brooke Howard with two out in the third.

“I was really relying on my curveball this time,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous to throw it there because I knew my defense had me.”

Rock Falls (4-2) was able to get a run off of Stingley in the fourth. Karli Fischbach and Abby Whiles hit back-to-back singles with one out in the inning and a Bree Morgan single drove in Fischbach.

Stingley struck out Udell to end the fourth and limit the Rockets to a single run, then worked around a one-out double by Howard in the fifth by getting a pair of grounders, and worked a one-two-three sixth, striking out Whiles and and getting a Fischbach to pop out to Hernandez and Zoe Morgan to ground out to Hernandez.

“Even against a veteran like Palumbo, I thought we got in there with some pretty good confidence,” Smith said. “I was happy to see that. You’re a freshman going against a senior pitcher and you can go up there and fight, that’s good for the future, I think.”