No-hawk

SYCAMORE - You can't talk about it if you don't know it's even happening.

In baseball or softball, when someone has a no-hitter going, it's an unwritten rule that you don't talk about it. And certainly not to the one who's throwing it.

So when Mohawk hurler Kasey Adelsperger fired a no-hitter Saturday afternoon in a 1-0 victory against Lakota, the first she knew of what she had done was when the reporter shared it with her.

Neither did catcher Dani Tyree.

Or her coach Jenny Weinandy.

In fairness though, none of them cared how they won, just that they won.

"I knew it was going to be a low-scoring game," Weinandy said. "I just play pitch by pitch and I tell my girls one pitch at a time. One hit at a time. Everything is one at a time. I wasn't thinking no hitter or anything like that. This game was a game of defense."

And the 1-0 victory forced a three-way tie for first in the Midland Athletic League as the Warriors, Raiders and New Riegel all sit with one loss each. Lakota has two games left, Tuesday against Calvert and Thursday against New Riegel, which is the Blue Jackets only league game left. Mohawk has Carey left on the league schedule and they will tangle Wednesday. All three teams have won a league title in the last three years.

"Being a senior and knowing that you could have a share of the MAL now, it puts pressure on you, but you need to let that pressure go away and play each game day-by-day," Tyree said.

While his team was alone in first when it started the day, Lakota coach Chris Chalfin said his club left Sycamore still atop the league standings.

"We still are in first. We're tied for first instead of being alone in first," he said. "We still can control our own destiny. We can share it but that's better than not having it at all. We have two tough league games left. We'll take it one game at a time."

Weinandy said she's glad to have a chance to take home a league crown, but likes the tournament atmosphere the game had.

"Every year our goal is to get to the top of the MAL, but I loved playing this game because it increases the pressure for this team for tournaments. I'm using this game for tournaments," Weinandy said. "MAL would be nice. I don't like to share, to be honest."

Adelsperger (15-4) credited the defensive efforts of her team with the victory and the no-hitter.

"It's a great feeling because (Lakota) is a great team. We knew they had quite a few good hitters coming into this," Adelsperger said. "I think it just came down to defense tonight. It wasn't all about the pitching, like we've seen lately. It was about who had the better defense today."

Both teams talked about how one mistake was going to likely win the game.

"It was a great game (between) two really good teams and we couldn't get anything going offensively," Chalfin said. "Defensively, I thought we played great. We made some great plays out in the field and they did too. They just got the one break and we didn't get the one break."

And it was one mistake that ended up leading to the winning run.

Throughout the game, Mohawk reached base with a hit within the first two batters of the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, it was no exception as Mohawk (17-5, 9-1 MAL) led of the inning with a single off the bat of Taylor McClain. A groundout to third moved McClain to second before Tyree flied out to center.

With two outs, Nikki Kieffer hit a wormburner to Lakota shortstop Kaitlyn Baumer, who scooped it up and fired high to first base, over the head of Jessica Hoffman. McClain scampered around third and scored on the play as Kieffer motored down to second. Molli Cartwright hit a fly to left that left fielder Nikkia Cooper made a graceful diving grab, ending the threat.

"We talked about that: when you get in these close games that one play can change the outcome of the game," Chalfin said. "And that doesn't mean that that one play really what it was because we had a lot of batters up there that didn't do much at the plate, all the way through the lineup. Not just one person."

In the seventh, the Raiders (15-6, 8-1) went down the same way they did the previous seven batters: in order.

"It came down to who would make an error first and they made their first and we came back on it," Tyree said.

Lakota's best chance came in the first inning when Adelsperger showed some signs of being erratic, hitting the leadoff hitter, Alaina Bickford, and two groundouts later, walking Baumer, to give the Raiders runners at the corners before a popout to Adelsperger ended the threat.

"Those things come back to haunt you and that showed today," Chalfin said.

"I just had to calm down a little bit and take what the ump gave me and go with the flow," Adelsperger said.

Lakota had walks in the third and fourth and reached on an error in the second but no Raiders advanced past second base.

On the day, Adelsperger walked three and hit a batter while striking out four.

"We scored on a defensive error. That just goes to show that both teams had great defense," Weinandy said. "I'm just so proud of our defense for hanging tough and staying focused. Kasey, she actually grew up today. She's a sophomore. This win and her composure on the mound actually made her taller."

Durst (12-2) scattered six hits, walked no one and hit a batter. She struck out two.

"Both pitchers pitched great," Chalfin said. "I was expecting a really close game. I was hoping we could score something. It's hard to win when you don't score a run."