Houda’s one-hitter lifts Lisle

Updated: May 31, 2011 8:19PM

Bekka Houda did not make the same mistake twice.

Facing a Momence team she beat two weeks ago for a state semifinal berth, the Lisle senior pitcher acted as if that game never happened.

“Last year we played Morrison in the supersectional after we beat them during the season and we came in very overconfident and we made a lot of mental mistakes,” she said.

Houda fired a one-hitter and the Lions used a four-hit, two-run, first-inning uprising to seize control in punching their ticket to East Peoria Friday with an impressive 6-0 victory over the Redskins in a Class 2A Supersectional at Seneca Tuesday afternoon.

The Lions advance to the 4:30 Friday semifinal at EastSide Centre against the same Morrison team that ended the Lions’ season last year en route to its third-place finish.

“This team has had my back the whole year, and they really picked me up,” Houda said of the early offensive explosion. “This was our third straight year of playing in a super sectional and the games didn’t go our way before and we were going to make sure there was a different result this time,“ she said.

Houda struck out five and allowed just three base runners in running her mark to 21-2. After giving up a walk to the first batter she faced, she never allowed another free pass. She had a no-hitter through five innings.

Offensively the Lions (28-4) collected 10 hits. “We talked before the game of having patience at the plate, that they’d throw a lot of change ups and off-speed pitches and we’d have to wait and drive through the balls and that’s what we did,” Lisle coach Jennifer Pomatto said.

With runners at second and third in the top of the first, senior third baseman Mackenzie Buchelt smashed a two-run single off Redskins’ ace Bailey Boicken for the Lions’ early advantage.

Senior catcher Grace Riley (3-for-3) added a run-scoring single in the third inning to push the lead to 3-0. “We were pumped up and ready to play right at the start,” Riley said. “We saw that once we got that early lead, our confidence really soared and we could see with each run we scored, they kind of got deflated.“

Riley helped put the game away in the top of the fifth inning. She smashed a double into center field that put runners at second and third with two outs. After striking out in her first two at-bats, senior left fielder Maggie Corrigan delivered with a clutch two-run single just inside the left field foul line.

Right fielder Tori Harris added the final run on a perfectly-executed double steal of home in the sixth.

From there it was a mere formality. The Redskins (25-8) stunned a 32-1 Beecher team in the Coal City sectional semifinals on Saturday. They were also coming off an impressive 10-0 five-inning victory over Seneca on Monday.

None of that fazed Houda.

She defeated the Redskins 2-0 in a rain-shortened five-inning game two weeks ago at the Lisle Invitational. “I knew about their hitters, but also my dad and some of the other fathers went up to the game yesterday against Seneca and gave me a scouting report and talked to me about their tendencies and what they liked to do,” she said.

Houda stymied Momence with her dazzling off-speed and outside pitches that consistently kept the Redskins off-balance. She struck out the side in the second inning.

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