Lory Shaw, Staff Writer
The Lady Flyers have won their last four games in a row at home. The most impressive part is that their opponents, in all four games, have failed to score a single run. Two of those games were ended in only six innings when they usually play eight.
The Flyers were coming off somewhat of a rough spring break spent in Florida, where they went 3-5 against a few teams they weren’t happy about losing to. Concordia and the University of the Sciences were two teams the Flyers felt they could have beaten.
“Some of those teams were pretty good, but we weren’t extremely happy about how the week went,” right fielder Katie Healy said.
After a week and a half off, the Flyers got back to action against Judson on St. Patty’s Day at home. No luck of the Irish was needed to help them win though. It was pitching, defense and great hitting that led the Flyers to wins.
First baseman Stephanie Harmon crushed her 28th career home run on March 19, tying the school record set by her former teammate Kelly Dianis. Photo provided by Steve Woltmann.
“We really clicked on all cylinders,” head coach George DiMatteo said. “We manufactured runs, played flawless defense and we had lights out pitching.”
Pitchers for those games were senior Diana Pickrum and junior Karissa Habel. Both threw their entire respective games. Pickrum thew a one-hit shutout for the Flyers while Habel was able to toss five strikeouts. On Saturday, the Flyers faced the Prairie Stars of the University of Illinois-Springfield. Once again, Pickrum and Habel pulled through, both throwing shutouts.
Pickrum improves to 5-1, while Habel improves to 4-2.
“It just feels so great to be able to pitch well for my team and it makes it even better when we can all come together and play like we can,” Pickrum said. “It really shows our potential and what we can do as a team.”
Helping the Flyers was sophomore center fielder, Jayme Hefler, who scored four runs against Judson in two games and three runs against UIS in two games. She added four stolen bases against Judson and five against UIS.
Senior first baseman, Stephanie Harmon, drills her second home run of the season in the second game versus UIS. That brings her total to 28 home runs in her Lewis career and ties her with former teammate Kelly Dianis for the most home runs in Lewis history.
“To play as well as we did this week is a very good sign for us going forward,” said DiMatteo.
It is safe to say that the Flyers are ready for the journey ahead of them. Their games that were scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, were rescheduled to a later date due to heavy rains in the Joliet area. They head back into action against Rockhurst in Kansas City on Saturday, March 26, at 12 p.m.
Lory Shaw
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