WEST POINT — Brooke Mueller’s three-run home run to left field put some life into the Holy Trinity dugout.
It also brought Wapello pitcher Ada Boysen into the game.
Boysen kept the Crusaders’ offense silent after that, as Wapello took a 10-4 win to snap Holy Trinity’s five-game winning streak.
Livia Fuller started the game for the Arrows (18-8), and Holy Trinity coach Loren Menke was hoping his team, which had scored 65 runs in its winning streak, could get an early start.
Instead, the Arrows scored seven runs in the first three innings on 10 hits — two of those were triples by Boysen, who started the game at first base — and took control of the game.
“We got off to a bad start,” Menke said. “I don’t think we did anything wrong. We’ve been playing good defense, which has been huge for us. They hit the ball well in those first couple of innings and we got in a hole, and you just can’t get in a hole against a team like that with a pitcher like that (Boysen) just sitting out there ready to come in.”
Mueller’s home run forced the Arrows to make a change at pitcher. In came Boysen, who came into the game with 184 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings. She would strike out nine Crusaders over the final 4 2/3 innings.
“If we would have had a little time to prepare for a fast pitcher like that, it would have helped,” Menke said. “We haven’t had a practice in a week and a half, two weeks, other than a little practice before a game. I think we’ve played at least eight straight games, nine straight, without getting some time to work.
“With a pitcher like that, it’s all about timing. You don’t see that kind of a pitcher very often.
The Arrows added a single run in the fifth inning and two runs in the sixth to finish their scoring.
Holy Trinity (9-10) did get to Boysen in the seventh inning. Emmalyn Snaadt singled to open the inning, then scored when Mary Hellige’s two-out single to right field skipped past Wapello’s Mya Wagner.
Hellige had a three-hit night. Mueller had two hits, as did Rachel Menke.
It was the final regular-season home game for the Crusaders, who play Van Buren and Lone Tree on the road to close the regular season before heading into the Class 1A regional tournament.
“We’ve won five in a row, and I feel pretty good about this team,” Menke said. “We want to win them, of course. Van Buren is tough — the last three games with them have been one-run games — and we’ve never beaten Lone Tree. So we just have to be ready to play.
“I think probably overall, the defense has been the biggest thing in this winning streak. If we can count on defense, and we can get some timely hitting, we can get in the tournament and win a couple of games. We can make some noise.”
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