Bunte atones for first-inning mistake, goes 4 for 4 in QND softball team’s home victory

QUINCY — Caitlin Bunte did not let a first-inning error deter her and instead used it as motivation.

Two batters into the Quincy Notre Dame softball team’s game against Triopia on Friday, Raiders third baseman Josie Boyer fielded a ground ball off the bat of Addilynn Tracy. Bunte dropped Boyer’s throw to first, allowing Tracy to reach base. After advancing to second on a passed ball on the first pitch to the next batter, Addison Rohn, Tracy scored on Rohn’s base hit to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead.

“I had to make up for it,” Bunte said.

Bunte made up for it and then some. She led off the bottom of the first with a well-struck single, kickstarting a three-run inning. She finished 4 for 4, scored two runs and fired five scoreless innings in relief as the Raiders beat the Trojans 4-1 at The Backyard.

“Short-term memory, for sure,” Bunte said. “If you make a mistake, you have to get over it. You have to act like it never happened, and you have to be ready for the next play. You can’t dwell on something for too long.”

Bunte struck out nine and only surrendered one baserunner — Rohn’s single with two outs in the third — after relieving Madalyn Boyer at the start of the third inning. Bunte retired the final 13 batters of the game and threw 46 of her 61 pitches for strikes.

“Her velo is up,” Raiders coach Eric Orne said. “She’s popping the ball, throwing a lot of strikes. There were a couple times where her drop ball worked to get some ground ball outs early in the count.”

Orne expected nothing less from Bunte, a two-time all state selection.

“That’s what a good senior captain does,” Orne said. “That’s the type of player she is. She’s just special.”

After Boyer gave way to Bunte with a 3-1 lead, she knew Bunte would seal the deal.

“Once she goes in, I’m like, ‘She’s got it handled. We’ve got her back. She’s got it. We’re going to be OK,’” Boyer said.

Before that point, though, Boyer continued to work her way out of an early-season hitting funk with a two-run triple off the right-field fence to give the Raiders a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. That three-bagger gave Boyer four hits in her last eight at-bats after a 1-for-11 stretch prior to that and a 4-for-20 start to the season.

“It was definitely a big relief,” Boyer said of her lead-changing hit. “I feel like this season, I’ve been a little tough on myself with my hitting because I know I can do better, so just having that big hit, I kind of found myself. That’s what I look forward to the rest of the season, having big hits like that because I know I can. I did it all last year, and I did it all my sophomore year. Having a big hit after struggling a little bit, it was a big relief.”

She thought it had a chance of leaving the yard.

“I did. I thought it was over right when it hit my bat, but it was just short,” Boyer said.

She was perfectly content with a triple, though.

“I’ll take it,” Boyer said.

The Raiders tacked on another run in the first on a bases-loaded walk to Morgan Winking. Bunte and Mylee Tracy traded scoreless innings until Josie Boyer, Madalyn’s younger sister, singled up the middle with two outs in the sixth to drive in Bunte — who doubled to right four pitches earlier to cap off a four-hit effort — and give the Raiders an insurance tally.

Josie Boyer was determined to make up for her previous at-bat in which she struck out with Bunte at second base and one out in the fourth.

“I was not happy with my strikeout, and I was like, ‘I know I’m not going to strike out this time,’” she said. “I needed to do whatever I could to move the runner and also get myself on base. Once I saw that pitch, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do this.’ It felt really good.”

Bunte and the Boyer sisters combined for seven of the Raiders’ eight hits. Bunte held Triopia (7-3) to its lowest run total of the season. It was only the fourth time in 10 games the Trojans scored fewer than 10 runs.

“We knew they had a really good pitcher and had a long lineup,” Orne said. “We knew we had to come in and play good softball, and we did. Our pitching was really good today. Madalyn did a good job in those two innings to buy some time for Caitlin, and then Caitlin came in and shut the door.”

QND (12-1) will play a doubleheader with Bloomington Central Catholic beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in Bloomington.