ROCHELLE — Sophomore right-hander Emma Heller was accurate and confident in the pitcher’s circle on Wednesday evening, striking out a dozen batters as the Rochelle Lady Hubs took the field at RTHS for their nonconference varsity softball matchup against Peru St. Bede.

Heller held the Bruins to just two earned runs over the first five innings and fired 113 pitches without allowing a single walk. The Lady Hubs scattered six hits in the game, but Rochelle was unable to deliver in timely moments. St. Bede, however, rallied for six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to clinch a 10-0 win over the Lady Hubs. Rochelle (4-13, 0-4 Interstate 8) will be back in action on Friday evening, when the team will host Rockford Lutheran at 4:30 p.m.

“I thought Emma was really determined today,” head coach Deanna Jacobs said. “She was hitting her spots really well and she was playing her position defensively. She helped herself out on defense, which was huge for us, but we weren’t able to piece everything together. Our baserunning wasn’t where it needed to be and we were struggling to hit the changeup, so we couldn’t help her as much as we wanted to. I thought Emma looked phenomenal today.”

The Lady Hubs had a chance to take an early lead in the top of the first inning, where junior Madigan Williams slapped a lead-off single to right and senior Lauren Dyer followed by rolling a single through the middle two batters later. Sophomore Phelisity Lopez led off the top of the second inning with a bunt single down the third-base line as well. But a groundout and a popout ended the first frame before a groundout and a strikeout concluded the top half of the second.

“We’ve shaved down the strikeouts, which is huge, but we’ve been hitting a lot of balls at people and eventually we’ll find the gaps,” Jacobs said. “We just have to keep putting the ball in play.”

St. Bede (10-5, 6-0 Tri-County) took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, surging ahead 2-0 after No. 8 batter Quinn McClain blasted a two-run homer off the scoreboard in left-center field. Freshman Audrina Rodriguez added another lead-off hit for the Lady Hubs, shooting a single up the middle to begin the top of the third inning. But a ground ball to second led to a double play for the Bruins and pitcher Chipper Rossi, who threw all six innings for St. Bede.

Although Rossi finished with only two strikeouts, her fastball-changeup combination kept the Rochelle offense off balance and enabled her to strand Lady Hubs on base throughout the evening. Rochelle had a chance to score in the top of the fourth inning, where Dyer reached on an infield single and Heller made it to first on an error, but another double-play grounded ended the threat. Two fielder’s choice grounders put St. Bede up 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

As Heller worked into the sixth inning, the Bruins found success in their third turn around the lineup, opening the frame with three straight singles before a two-run double from Macy Strauch gave St. Bede a 6-0 advantage with no outs. An RBI groundout from Ava Balestri led to an RBI triple from Macy Kelly, who lined a ball into the right-field corner to make the score 8-0. 

Heller’s 12th strikeout of the evening nearly allowed the Lady Hubs to extend the game into a seventh frame, but a bloop RBI single from Sadie Leffelman sparked a string of three straight two-out singles, with Lily Bosnich’s walk-off single through the left side ending the game.

“Emma has grown up a lot and it’s nice that we have more options this year,” Jacobs said. “We’ve been able to take some pressure off of her so she doesn’t have to think that it’s all on her. She has teammates she can rely on and we have other pitchers we can use if we need to.”