In both baseball and softball, scoring runs is key to winning games. However, teams can’t win championships without great pitching. Rogers has both, specifically when it comes to its pitching staff.
The Royals are 14-2 and have allowed more than five runs in only one of their games. Rogers has used four pitchers this season: Avery Freeberg, Brianna Ness, Kyla O’Keefe and AnnaBelle Waldoch. This quartet is coached by Malea Heinecke. Heinecke said the Royals constantly work to find what pitchers work best against certain batters and teams.
“We’re trying to fit out best pitchers with our best opponents,” Heinecke said. “If they [opponents] struggle to hit low and outside, we’re going to try and fit one of our best pitchers that hits [the strike zone] low and outside. We like to use our whole staff. If they overpitch, we don’t want them to lose their quality. We want to use all of them to the best of their abilities.”
Waldoch has thrown the most innings with more than 55 to her name. She is 6-2 with two saves, one shutout, 85 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.38. Waldoch has also thrown two complete games.
Waldoch said that if she comes out of a game, she knows that the other three are ready to go and throw quality pitches.
“They can handle those situations,” Waldoch said. “We all have a great defense behind us [and] a great lineup. We all work hard.”
Ness is 3-0 with two saves, 16 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.06. O’Keefe is 2-0 with 11 strikeouts and a 3.68 ERA in 13 1/3 innings of work. Freeberg has thrown two innings and has allowed two hits and no earned runs.
“We work well together,” Ness said. “We use each other for support. We all are close on the team. Everyone is good friends. We all feel comfortable with each other.
“When someone’s down, we all try to make jokes, making sure they feel better.”
The Royals staff has thrown three shutouts this season and has also allowed three or fewer runs in 11 of Rogers’ 16 games.
Heinecke said all four pitchers are effective at throwing strikes.
“They work hard on hitting their spots during practice. We do a lot of drills that specify hitting those low and high outside corners as best as we can every practice.”
It also helps that Rogers fielders have committed just four errors in 15 games this season. The Royals’ offense has scored 111 runs, an average of 6.94 per game, while the pitching and defense has allowed only 42 for an average of 2.63 per game.
“We’re going to go far,” O’Keefe said.
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