HAMMOND | It was senior night for Bishop Noll on Wednesday and Vanessa Hartzell did her part.
The Warrior pitcher faced the minimum 15 batters in her five innings of relief and struck out 11. Unfortunately for B.N.I., Morton was already up when Hartzell entered the game.
The Times No. 10 Governors held on to a 3-1 victory.
"I knew if started making contact, they were going to play (Hartzell), so I told them 'Let's take advantage,'" Morton coach Matt Barno said. "We were able to get three across."
Morton (19-1) scored all three of those runs in the third inning when Jessica Chorak and Cierra Charbonneau notched back-to-back singles before Hartzell took the mound.
"I liked what I saw (from Hartzell)," Warriors coach Ralph Laramie said, "but we've still got to score to win."
Angelica Justino did her part on the rubber for Morton, scattering four hits over all seven innings and allowing only one run in the seventh.
"She did a good job and she kept it low, getting ground balls and doing exactly what she needs to do," Barno said. "My defense really backed her up."
As the Warriors (18-7) put on the heat in the final inning, right fielder Yadi Reyes made a diving catch on Jessica Esquivel's liner that prevented a big inning.
"Beautiful catch. She read it perfectly, timed it perfectly, the dive, everything was just one in a million," Barno said. "I want to claim her as my own daughter right now."
Laramie said he had no regrets holding Hartzell until there was trouble.
"We pulled (starter Kate Richardson) up from JV to see what she had," Laramie said. "We wanted to see what she had and she did fine for two innings."
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