MENTOR—Maggie Haydu did it all for Mentor in a 6-0 Greater Cleveland Conference win over visiting Solon on Wednesday.
Haydu allowed two hits and struck out two in three scoreless innings of work to earn the pitching victory and she also went 2-for-2 at the plate with a triple, a home run, and two runs batted in.
“Just being confident in every swing,” Haydu said of her success at the plate. “Knowing that we have to be unselfish at the plate and get on base.”
Mentor scored all six of its runs in the first three innings.
Izzy Coode drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first and stole second. Bella Carcioppolo followed with an RBI single.
After Solon hit back-to-back two-out singles in the second, Haydu pitched out of the jam and tripled home Sydni Bush in the bottom half of the inning. Kiley Markowski drew a one-out walk and Coode hit a two-out single to set the table for Carcippolo, who hit a RBI single. Leah Temple then walked with the bases loaded to push Mentor’s lead to 5-0.
Haydu hit a solo homer in the third.
“If she doesn’t feel like something is right she is constantly trying to fix it,” said Mentor coach Jo Bondra. “I think today she was locked in. We have to lock in and get ready for the postseason. She definitely did that today.”
Temple pitched the fourth through the sixth innings, yielding just two hits and with two strikeouts, and Kristin Dems struck out two in the seventh.
“I think it goes back to pitching,” Bondra said when talking about the team’s success. “We just ask them to give us your best three. We aren’t trying to locate 12 different pitches, so we dial it back to that. We are using a staff instead of one pitcher the entire game, so that’s been changing things for us.”
Haydu, Carcioppolo, and Paige Davis each had two hits for the Cardinals. Davis hit a triple and knocked in a run.
Coode, Temple, Bush, Abby Haydu, and Jenna Place all had one hit in the win.
Mentor improved to 12-5 overall and 7-1 in the GCC.
Bondra offered up high praise for Solon pitcher Kassidy Samuelraj.
“I think Solon’s pitcher deserves a lot of credit,” she said. “She is a freshman who stepped in when her sister (Kaylin) got hurt. She kept our team to six runs and as a freshman coming in against our offense, that is a huge accomplishment.”
