Bunte’s effort in circle, Raiders’ ability to play with ‘speed and power’ leads to victory over Rockets

QUINCY — Perched at first base, Addi Zanger gets a daily bird’s-eye view of Caitlin Bunte in the pitcher’s circle. Most games, it can be a little monotonous, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“I don’t really do anything,” Zanger said with a chuckle. “She rolls us a lot of ground balls which is really important.”

Nursing a 2-1 lead through two innings Tuesday, Bunte entered to pitch in the third inning against Rushville-Industry and the Quincy Notre Dame softball team’s sophomore southpaw calmly retired the first nine batters she faced.

The Raiders backed her up on offense, highlighted by a five-run sixth inning, to defeat the Rockets 10-1 at The Backyard.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” Bunte said. “(QND pitching coach Lori) Vogel puts me out there and she trusts that I’m going to do my job and get it done. That’s all I’m trying to work on, just making sure I’m hitting my spots and getting pitches where they need to be.”

Bunte struck out the side in the third inning and followed with seven more punchouts over the final four innings. She only allowed one baserunner (a leadoff single in the seventh inning) in five innings in the circle.

“She kept the ball down. I think that was the key,” QND coach Eric Orne said.  “She kept the ball down and kept them off stride. Those two things worked in her favor.”

Carlee Gilker started for QND (5-0) and worked out of a bases-loaded, first-inning jam by inducing a 5-2-3 double play. 

“It was a lot about backing each other up, backing up Carlee when she was having a rough time early in the game,” Zanger said. “She got it together and got us some outs and then backing up Bunte when she came in the game and just being able to play your role well.”

The Raiders scored twice in their half of the first inning thanks to an Abbey Schreacke RBI triple and Brooke Boden’s run-scoring single. 

Rushville-Industry (5-2) scored its lone run in the second inning when Josey Vogler singled to start the frame and later crossed home plate on an Alexis Hardy groundout to second base.

QND answered with three runs in the fifth inning, which started with a Logan Pieper double. Three batters later, pinch-runner Laela Hernandez-Jones scored on a Bunte sacrifice fly and Schreacke singled home Mackenzie Flachs and Faith Kientzle to push the Raiders’ lead to 5-1.

“We’re doing the little things, and I think that’s big for us,” Orne said. “We’re doing a lot of little things that added up to 10 runs today. Up and down our lineup we had good at-bats. There wasn’t a weak spot.”

The Raiders doubled their run total in the bottom of the sixth inning. Schreacke drove in her fourth run of the game with an RBI single. Later in the frame, Zanger and Pieper had back-to-back two-run doubles.

“We did a lot of things with speed and power, mixed and matched a little bit, and it really worked today,” Orne said.

Schreacke led the way with three hits and four RBIs, Pieper added three hits and two RBIs, Zanger had two hits and a pair of runs batted in, and Bunte reached base three times and scored twice.

All told, it was a complete team effort in Bunte’s opinion.

“Everyone is trying to find their spot on the field and trying to see what they are good at, and Coach Orne is giving them opportunities,” she said. “It’s great for our team.”