Piper dominant again, Blue Jackets take huge step towards another league crown

A Karsyn Piper double to right field scored Jacqui Tiell in the top of the first.That was all New Riegel needed.Piper's pitching kept Calvert off the board the entire game.The Division VII No. 10 Blue Jackets knocked off the sixth-ranked Senecas 1-0 in Sandusky Bay Conference River Division play on Wednesday at Ted Rombach Field.The win moved NR (17-2, 8-1) closer to the River title as Calvert (18-2, 8-2) is now a game behind the Blue Jackets and Gibsonburg."This is incredible," Blue Jackets coach Tony Conner said. "Holding Calvert down to one hit with what they have been doing this season is incredible. Karsyn did her thing on the mound, and Claire Schalk had two incredible catches."Piper has been averaging 15 strikeouts per game in the circle. She limited Calvert to one hit, had 11 punchouts and one walk on the night."My teammates really helped me with this one," Piper said. "They kept me motivated the entire time and they had some incredible plays on defense. Without that, this wouldn't have been possible."Claire Schalk caught two fly balls, one in the bottom of the sixth, and one in the bottom of the seventh, that took away any momentum that Calvert had."Claire in right field, it's crazy," Conner said. "People think that right field is where you just randomly place a person and that's not it. It's not how we thought about it. Clearly she is perfect in that position. For Karsyn to know that she has players like that behind her takes the pressure off."Ava Eilrich got the better of Piper and the Blue Jackets in the first matchup this season, but this time she allowed one run on seven hits (one earned), with seven strikeouts and one walk."Ava is awesome. The greatest thing about that kid is that she never gives up," Senecas coach Leah Bouillon said. "She works extremely hard and she is doing a fantastic job in the circle, up at bat, as shortstop, and we are very proud of her. Her maturity is through the roof and we couldn't be more proud of the discipline she is putting out there and she pitched a fantastic game."The lone hit for Calvert came from Kate Coleman in the bottom of the second inning on a single. Coleman was thrown out at second base however on a steal."It was a really good game," Bouillon said. "It's these types of games that you want, especially in this conference. You see those night in and night out. New Riegel made defensive plays that could have been hits or could have been outs. They just happened to be outs. You tip your hat forward and keep moving."You play games like this to be better in the tournament."For the Blue Jackets, this game marked the fourth shutout in a row and the eighth this season."I couldn't be more proud of these girls," Conner said. "Especially with tournaments coming up and to be able to take down the No. 1 seed really speaks about where these guys are and where they want to be."As of right now, we are coming together and that's what we need. Especially right before tournament time. We are doing it right now and we want to keep the momentum going."NR will face Gibsonburg (11-2, 7-1) at home. "We just try to keep it one game at a time and not look too far ahead," said Piper in regards to going against Gibsonburg. "We just play our game. Everything comes together for us in the end because of how well we play together. We try to keep it simple."