Potts pushes Knights past Kaneland

Updated: April 6, 2011 3:26PM

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Andrea Potts didn't get fooled again Monday.

After taking a called third strike in the first inning against Sandwich starter Morgan Murphy, the Kaneland senior first baseman made the most of her other plate opportunities.

She hit a two-run single, belted a two-run home run, hit a smash that the third baseman speared but couldn't complete a play on and then ripped an RBI double to account for five runs in the Knights' 8-0 non-conference win.

"She has good movement on her ball, it's just a matter of picking it up and waiting for a good pitch to hit," said Potts, who plays in the same Northern Illinois Thunder summer program as Murphy but on a different team. "I think everybody, after seeing her once they picked up on her and were seeing better pitches to hit. That first at bat, I wasn't seeing it very well."

Her two-run single was just past the reach of Sandwich shortstop Hannah Prucha and staked Kaneland pitcher Taylor Velazquez to an early lead.

The Knights' right-handed starter pitched six scoreless innings and teamed up with junior Katy Dudzinski on the three-hit shutout. Velazquez (3-0) struck out five, walked four, hit one batter and allowed the three hits but allowed just one runner to reach third base as her defense played errorless ball behind her.

"Our pitching was good, defense was good and our hitting was what it should be," said Kaneland coach Brian Willis, whose club is 5-1 and opens Northern Illinois Big 12 East Conference play today at Morris.

"I thought we had a lot of balls hit hard today and (Potts') hits were the hardest hit. We had an all-around good game today."

Murphy retired seven straight batters after Potts' second-inning single but Kaneland sophomore Alyssa O'Herron drew a walk to open the fifth. Potts then drove a ball into the left-center field gap that two-hopped into the base of the fence some 240 feet away and motored around the bases for her third home run of the season.

Dudzinski then singled, stole second, moved to third on Rilee Vest's sacrifice fly and came home on Brittney Miller's single. Vest would add a two-run double in the sixth and Potts' RBI double in the seventh capped the Knights' 10-hit attack.

"When we play defense and pitch like this, we'll be OK," said Willis. "Games that worry me are when we walk too many people and have three or four errors."

Murphy, Jacque Lorusso and Jordan Kipper all had singles to account for the 2-3 Indians' three hits.

"We loaded the bases at the end (in the sixth inning), but couldn't string enough hits together," said Sandwich coach Lauren Vaclavik. "We're sort of on a dry streak on our hitting and we need to refocus."

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