Rogers rebounds for Mighty Macs

Updated: May 4, 2011 12:11PM

Coming off a 4-0 defeat to No. 9 Oak Forest on Saturday, Mother McAuley’s Ashley Rogers rebounded brilliantly.

The star senior dominated host Marist in front of and behind the plate. Rogers stymied the RedHawks with a five-hitter and blasted a three-run home run to power the No. 13 Mighty Macs to the 5-1 victory Tuesday.

“In that game [against Oak Forest] Saturday, I made just one mistake,” Rogers said. “I gave up too much of the plate on one pitch and it went over the fence. I knew [Marist] had a lot of good hitters, and I just tried not to give it up too much of the plate.

“I really worked the corners.”

Rogers struck out five and allowed just one walk in running her mark to 12-4. Even when Rogers encountered trouble, such as the bottom of the sixth, the Mighty Macs’ defense helped stuff the threat. “My defense is always backing me up,” she said.

The offense also found its grove. The Mighty Macs (19-5) scored all their runs on a season-high three home runs. Senior shortstop Erin O’Donnell initiated the long ball barrage by leading off the fourth by lacing a shot over the right field fence.

“At that point of the game, I knew we needed a spark, and I was just to trying to get something going and establish some momentum,” the left-hander O’Donnell said. It was her third home run of the season. “It was an inside fastball and I just went with it.”

Rogers followed moments later and nearly duplicated O’Donnell’s shot. She drove a ball into deep center field though Marist’s Teagan Walsh reached over the fence and pulled the ball in. “I didn’t follow through with my swing,” Rogers said.

That was not the case her next time up. After O’Donnell and Alex Raske reached on consecutive singles, Rogers crushed a ball about 240 feet into left-center for the 4-0 Mighty Macs’ lead. “It was an inside fastball and I was able to get my hands around and make full contact,” she said. It was her fifth home run of the year.

First baseman Micaela Carney followed Rogers with a deep shot over the left field fence for her third home run of the season.

The RedHawks (14-7) averted the shutout in the sixth on Walsh’s RBI single into right field. O’Donnell broke up the potential rally by throwing out Megan Gustafson at the plate. “I started to go to [first base] and [Carney] yelled, ‘Home,’ and I went to the plate,” O’Donnell said.

Marist coach Denise Bromberek was disappointed her team did not match the Mighty Macs’ intensity level. “We were very impatient at the plate,” she said. “They have good hitters, the three home runs, but I was not happy that in a rivalry game like this, our players did not come ready to play.”

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