EVERETT — Archbishop Murphy may not have played its best game against Lakewood Monday afternoon, but the Wildcats still made all the right moves.
Senior pitcher Kate Kennedy pitched a four-hit shutout and Archbishop Murphy generated more than enough offense as the Wildcats defeated the Cougars 6-0 in a Cascade Conference softball game at Archbishop Murphy High School.
The victory boosted the Wildcats to 5-0 in the league and 6-0 overall.
“Today wasn’t one of our better games,” senior catcher Blair Hardy said. “But I think we did good. We managed to get some hits later in the game and brought in some runs. “
Even though Archbishop Murphy is undefeated, the offense has struggled at times this season, said Wildcats coach Brad Johnson.
“When we get hits they are spread out,” he said.
“It (offense) definitely has been off and on, but we always somehow manage to get some runs late in the game if we need to,” Hardy said. “Some games it’s a lot better.”
Archbishop Murphy took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when junior first baseman Kayelynne Huggins doubled and then scored when the Lakewood centerfielder misplayed a hard hit ball by Hardy.
The Wildcats scored two more runs in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by freshman Jaimee Greenup and an RBI single by freshman Kelsey Stoeser.
In the sixth inning, sophomore Kristin Ehlebracht and junior Kaitlin Duffy drove in runs.
Seven freshmen joined the team this season and they are definitely making major contributions.
“They’re bringing speed and they’re filling holes that we lost last year,” Kennedy said.
“We’re really expecting a lot out of them this year,” Johnson said.
The Cascade Conference has a wide variety of pitching styles and with the first half of the season wrapped up, Johnson is hoping his players will be better able to handle what they see the rest of the way.
“With our league we see lots of different speeds of pitching so it does get challenging for us,” Johnson said. “Now that we’ve gone through all the teams, the second time around hopefully we’ll be able to see some more hits.”
As for the Wildcats’ pitching, Johnson has three different options — Kennedy, Huggins and freshman Brittany Allen.
This was Kennedy’s third start of the season and she didn’t view it as a particularly stellar outing, even though she ended up striking out 13 Lakewood batters.
Kennedy had to work out of jams in the second, fourth and sixth innings when runners advanced into scoring position.
“Today it looked like she didn’t have as much zip as she normally has on her fastball,” Johnson said. “Obviously her offspeed stuff was really working and that’s what got her a few of those strikeouts … her offspeed pitches.
“She had a drop-change and that got her out of most situations,” Hardy added.
Pitching has been a key ingredient in Archbishop Murphy’s success this season and it likely is only going to get better with the development of Allen. The freshman pitched a perfect game in a 10-0 victory over Sultan on April 5.
“I’ve been very blessed here with pitching,” Johnson said. “I’m three deep for pitching.”
Kennedy tends to throw a lot of offspeed pitches, while Huggins and Allen rely more on their power, Hardy said.
Having so many freshmen on the team means that Johnson looks to his seniors to provide leadership and one individual who had taken the reins is outfielder Ashley Robinett.
“(She) does a great job of leading the team,” Johnson said.
Robinett lets the players know what the expectations are and the younger players follow her lead.
“It’s less pressure on them,” Johnson said. “They don’t have to think about much except to come in here and play.”
Archbishop Murphy’s players and coach agree that the goal in the coming days is on fine tuning the offense.
“We need to focus on getting our hitting consistent,” Hardy said.
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