Richards continues unbeaten run

Updated: May 17, 2011 9:08PM

These are pretty exciting times for Richards softball.

The record for Bulldogs victories in a season is 28. Tuesday they captured their 26th victory with a 6-1 South Suburban Red decision over host Reavis.

No Bulldogs team ever has gone through a regular season unbeaten. This one is on the brink, with just three games remaining.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” sophomore Breanna Kaminski said. “We take it game by game, do everything we can. It’s pretty exciting.”

Kaminski was key Tuesday in keeping No. 2 Richards unblemished with a double, a single and two RBI. Kristina Apato added three hits and Brianna LeBeau, Danielle Kappel and Hannah Jenkins two each for the Bulldogs.

LeBeau also improved her pitching record to 21-0 with a rather uneven effort in which she surrendered a run and six hits through 31/3 innings, only to retire the final 11 batters she faced.

Split personality?

“It was someone very different,” LeBeau said of her persona at the start. “I came out a little flat. But our offense gave me a lot of confidence to come back in the last innings and be strong.”

Richards was in an unusual position — trailing — after one inning as Reavis (17-10, 14-4) strung together hits by Sarah Saunders, Meg Higgins and Sam Saunders to go ahead 1-0.

Higgins, meanwhile, blanked the Bulldogs through three frames on just three hits. She was backed defensively in the third on a nice play by second baseman Kayla Mangiapane, whose throw to catcher Becky Potenberg nailed a Richards runner at the plate.

But Higgins, who has taken over the pitching duties from Rams ace Cait Balandis (arm discomfort), ran into trouble in the fourth.

LeBeau started it by launching a towering fly to right-center in a howling wind that wound up dropping inches fair down the right-field line. LeBeau easily reached third, then scored when the relay throw got away.

“I saw it go up high and I knew that I was either going to be out or I was going to be running all the way to three,” LeBeau said. “The wind definitely played a big role in today’s game.”

The Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the fourth on a line double by Kaminski, a triple by Kappel and an RBI single by Kristin Renken.

Richards took firm control of the proceedings in the fifth, scoring three times on consecutive singles by Apato, LeBeau, Jenkins, Kaminski and Kappel.

The Rams, meanwhile, saw their ability to hit LeBeau’s changeup suddenly dissipate. Through four innings LeBeau had no strikeouts. Over the final three innings she had four.

Richards remained perfect.

“We would have liked to have been the blemish on their season, but at the same time it’s something to be proud of as far as our whole conference is concerned,” Reavis coach Jim Meskill said. “To see Richards step up and do what they’ve done is great for our conference. It really is.”

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