McGivern plays mighty for Mother McAuley

Mother McAuley has had some good days and bad days during the still-young 2008 season.

Few have had as complete a day as Mighty Macs senior Jackie McGivern did in Wednesday's 7-0 nonconference victory over Richards.

On the mound she recorded a three-hit shutout, striking out 10.

At the plate, she went 3-for-3 with two RBI. One of her hits was a home run in which the ball didn't stop rolling until it was closer to neighboring Brother Rice's football field than the McAuley infield.

"I don't think I've ever hit a ball that far. Not against this wind," she said with a smile. "It felt good."

Katie Sears had two hits and Desiree Aramburu a two-run double as part of a 10-hit outburst by the Macs (5-3).

"Before this, either our defense was on or our offense was on," McGivern said. "We were really practicing on bringing it all together at once.

"Our team was kind of having a rough start. We decided (Tuesday) at practice that we wanted to come together and make this year worth it."

Richards (6-6), coming in off back-to-back wins over Oak Forest and Reavis, received singles from Megan O'Brien, Stephanie Gatton and Ashley Tenerelli, but precious little else against McGivern.

"She did a good job painting the corners," Richards coach Julie Folliard said of McGivern. "She really did have good control of the plate. I think, though, that this certainly wasn't one of our better efforts. McAuley came to play. Hopefully, if we meet again, we will too."

The afternoon pretty much unraveled for Richards in the bottom of the first inning when the Macs scored four runs against starting pitcher Gatton.

Natalie Gannon got it started with a one-out bunt single. Gatton struck out the next batter, Andrea Falco, but the ball popped out of catcher Kristen Efantis' mitt. Falco raced to first without drawing a throw.

Aramburu made it 2-0 with a double, and came in on a single to right by McGivern that became a three-base advance after the ball got past Carlie O'Toole. Mary Youpel drove in McGivern with a sacrifice fly to left.

Singles by Colleen Sullivan and Jen Aguiar and a successful squeeze bunt by Sarah Garcia accounted for two more Mother McAuley runs in the fourth. McGivern's home run came with one out in the fifth.

Meanwhile, the farthest a Richards baserunner advanced was to second. McGivern walked just one on a day when, at times, the wind was howling.

"It wasn't easy at first," McGivern said. "But our catcher (Aramburu) is great, and the whole team was backing me up the whole time."