Upper Dublin’s Chloe Foster strikes out 13 in one-hitter against Dock Mennonite

UPPER DUBLIN >> Upper Dublin pitcher Chloe Foster only made one mistake Monday afternoon. In the top of the first inning, she left a 3-2 pitch over the plate and Dock Mennonite’s Melissa Moyer took it deep to left field for a two-run home run.

From that point on, Foster was dominant. She struck out the next batter to end the inning and didn’t allow another hit. Only three batters reached base the rest of the game as the Cardinals picked up a 12-2 win over the Pioneers at Upper Dublin High School.

Foster struck out 13 batters to three walks over six innings. She retired 12 straight batters from the third inning to the end of the game.

“I just came to compete,” Foster, who was happy with her two-seam fastball and changeup, said. “Come in thinking that they can win so I have to beat them.”

“She pitched very well,” Upper Dublin coach Heather Boyer said of the junior right-hander. “Her changeup was working – it was a good compliment to her fastball today, which really kept the hitters off-balance.

“To her credit, she has very good composure. When (she gives up runs) she settles down. I think she struck the next girl out when that happened today and then just never really looked back. It’s fun. She has good poise in the circle right now and doesn’t seem to get rattled, which is very important. You have to have a short memory when you’re out there.”

After Moyer gave Dock a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, Upper Dublin responded immediately with four runs in the bottom of the frame. Lauren Carboni scored on an error and Foster singled home Kaelin Penna to tie the game. Courtesy runner Rayla Kratchman scored in place of Foster on an error and Ally McDavis made it 4-2 on a wild pitch.

“We talk about that a lot – win the inning,” Boyer said. “This is a sport where you can’t expect a shutout every single game and the way teams are this year it seems that a lot of schools have very big offenses up and down the lineup. They have kids that can hit. To ask your pitcher to keep them scoreless for seven innings is a lot to ask for. If they’re going to score runs, you just have to score one more than they did – win the inning – and they did that today.”

“Our mindset was let’s win this game, let’s beat them and let’s get quality at-bats,” Foster said.

It was more of the same in the second inning. Avery Lennon, Gretchen Wolpert and Dani Lucidi all scored on errors to extend the Cardinals advantage to 7-2.

Wolpert led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run. After two outs, Penna singled, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a Foster single. Two more runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the fifth when Rachel Bilger pinch hit and sent a two-run double down the right-field line to make it an 11-2 game.

The 10-run mercy rule went into effect in the bottom of the sixth inning. McDavid singled, stole second and advanced to third on a groundball. She scored when Levin grounded to shortstop and the throw went to first base.

Penna and Foster each finished with two hits. Penna scored two runs and stole two bases while Foster totaled two RBI.

Maggie Dowell took the loss for the Pioneers. In 5.1 innings she allowed 12 runs on 10 hits. She struck out two batters and had one intentional walk. She didn’t get much help from her defense that committed 10 errors.

Upper Dublin 12, Dock Mennonite 2

Dock Mennonite 200 000 – 2

Upper Dublin 430 221 – 12

WP: Chloe Foster 6 IP 13 K 3 BB 1 H 2 R

LP: Maggie Dowell 5.1 IP 2 K 1 BB 10 H 12 R

2B: UD: Chloe Foster, Rachel Bilger.

HR: DM: Melissa Moyer. UD: Gretchen Wolpert.