Olson, Gomez power WC East past Rustin
WESTTOWN—West Chester East pounded out 17 hits—six for extra bases—while Jess Gomez and Olivia Ronayne combined on a five-inning no-hitter as the Vikings (3-0) topped crosstown rival Rustin (0-2) by a 12-0 score in the non-divisional Ches-Mont contest.
“3-0 is a great way to start, obviously, but we’re all more concerned about how we play in May and June,” said Vikings’ coach Bobby Swier. “As long as we keep improving every game, the wins and losses aren’t as important right now. But we’ve got girls all up and down, freshmen to seniors, contributing.”
While the Vikings did, in fact, hit all up and down the line-up, no one was as hot as Paige Olson. The sophomore centerfielder was a perfect 4 for 4 hitting out of the two slot, with a single, a pair of triples, a home run, and five runs batted in.
“That’s a girl right there, whether it’s practice, drills, pre-game warm up, whatever, she’s going at 110 miles per hour,” said Swier. “When you work as hard as she does, it’s going to pay dividends, like it did today.”
The Vikings wasted no time getting on the board, plating a run after just two hitters in the top half of the first. Kinzie Thompson led off the game, stroking a single to first, then scored on the first of Olson’s two triples.
With one out in the second, Amanda Gomez came to the plate for her first at bat of the season, and connected for a home run over the right field fence. In the third, Olson delivered a solo shot to left-center, her first-ever homer in a Vikings uniform.
“My first home run for the school feels pretty good,” said Olson. “It was an inside fastball, and we’ve been working hard in practice on inside pitches. We’ve been working well as a team. We have fun, but we work hard and I think we’re going to keep winning games.”
A nine-run fourth put the game away for the Vikings. The Vikings sent 12 hitters to the plate in the inning, with every single hitter in the order collecting a base hit before the first out was recorded, twice loading the bases. Maddy Dudely sparked the explosion, leading-off with a double, and Olson’s second triple of the afternoon cleared the bases for three RBI.
Jess Gomez picked up the win in the circle, going four strong. She didn’t allow a hit, while striking out five and walking two. Ronayne threw a 1-2-3 fifth to close out the game.
“It’s always good to pitch with a lead and I know I can count on this team to score runs,” said Gomez. “We just have so many good bats on this team I knew even though we started a little bit slow that we’d eventually put together a big inning.”
While everyone in the league has been plagued by the weather, limiting practices and games, Rustin has been hit particularly hard, with Thursday’s game just their second of the season.
“West Chester East has a really tough team, one I think has a really good shot at winning that side of the league,” said Knights’ coach Bruce Dudley. “They hit the ball hard, obviously, but in that big inning, they just found every hole. But it’s early—thanks to the weather, we’re looking at five games next week. Five winnable games. Right now we’re 0-2, but if we play the way we can, we could be 5-2 by the end of next week. It can turn around that quickly.”
WC East 12 Rustin 0
WC East ab r h bi Rustin ab r h bi
Thompson–LF 4 2 2 1 Hardwick—1B 2 0 0 0
Olson–CF 4 2 4 5 Inforzato—SS 2 0 0 0
S Gomez–C 4 1 2 1 Fife–C 1 0 0 0
Lark—3B 4 1 2 1 McCarthy–P 2 0 0 0
McLaughlin—2B 4 1 1 0 Geisler—3B 2 0 0 0
Dudley—1B 3 1 1 0 LaRosa–LF 2 0 0 0
A Gomez–RF 3 2 2 3 Bassick—RF 3 0 0 0
Wilson–SS 3 1 1 0 Ciarocchi—DH 2 0 0 0
J Gomez–P 3 1 2 0 Bitner—2B 1 0 0 0
Ronayne—P 0 0 0 0 Dobbs—FX/CF 0 0 0 0
Totals 36 12 17 12 Totals 16 0 0 0
2B—Dudley, J Gomez 3B—Olson (2) HR—A Gomez, Olson
WC East 1 1 1 9 0–12
Rustin 0 0 0 0 0–0
IP H R BB SO
WC East
J Gomez (W) 4 0 0 2 5
Ronayne 1 0 0 0 0
McCarthy (L) 5 17 12 0 10
