Cardinal opened the season back on April 9 with a 16-6 at Fairport Harding.
The Huskies then endured a challenging stretch that left them winless in their last 10 games. On Tuesday, they took out their frustrations by pounding out 14 hits to beat the visiting Skippers, 18-6, in five innings.
“We’ve been playing better,” said Cardinal coach Dennis Ikeler. “We played pretty well there but we still had a few hiccups. It was really nice to come out with a win.”
Sydney Hahner led the Huskies at the plate as she finished 3-for-4 with a double and a triple and five runs batted in.
“We were all very excited to win this game including me,” Hahner said. “It was a game to help us get our chemistry down as we are mostly a new and young team. Hopefully, this will be the start of coming out of our minor slump we got into.”
Hahner has been one of Cardinal’s top hitters all season.
She has at least one hit in 10 of the 11 games in which she appeared and is now hitting .556 on the year with three doubles, two triples and a home run.
“My approach was working in this game because I was calm and confident in the box,” Hahner said. “Also, I had timed up the pitcher pretty well and that got me into a nice rhythm. A game like that really helps in boosting not only my confidence, but my teammates’ also. It was a great game to get the fundamentals on lockdown.”
Kaitlyn Shantery, Faith Peters, Kayla Valentine and Anne Rupinski each finished with two hits for the Huskies.
“Our bats were going good,” Ikeler said. “We had some key hits when we needed them.”
Shantery also knocked in three runs and drew two walks.
“We were super excited,” Shantery said of the win. “It felt good to finally get some redemption. We’ve been working our butts off trying to get the chemistry right on the field and with every practice and every game we’ve been progressing.”
With a strong performance behind her, Shantery hopes to continue to drive the ball and find her way onto the base path to help the team.
“I was pretty satisfied with my hitting,” she said. “Starting off as a freshman, I had the worst nerves when it came to being in the box. This is a huge improvement for me. I have all of the confidence in the world in this team. My coach always says he’s not afraid to put us up against anyone and honestly neither am I. When our heads are in it, we’re unstoppable.”
Led by Valentine with three, the Huskies stole 10 bases in the game.
Hanna Traggiai also had one of her best performances in the pitching circle.
She allowed just two earned runs on five hits and struck out five.
“Hannah is holding her own,” Ikeler said. “She’s battling out there. I give her all the credit in the world. She’s battled through all these games, especially when she sees errors behind her and has to throw a lot of extra pitches. I’m proud of her.”
Cardinal hosts Hawken on Friday.
