By BILLY HEYEN
BROCKPORT, N.Y. — With two runners on in the third inning Thursday, Emily Phelan dipped her shoulder as she swung and popped out to end the inning. Bishop Kearney’s head coach, Dave Herbst, saw in her eye then that if she got another chance, she’d deliver.
It came an inning later with the bases loaded. Phelan swung twice without putting the ball in play, but she fixed her bat path before the next pitch. Her hands went straight to the ball, and Phelan launched a fly ball over the centerfielder for a bases-clearing double.
“I had to make the little adjustment, and I guess it worked,” Phelan said. “…I was glad I could do it on the other side of the field, too.”
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That hit, which doubled BK’s lead, was more than enough with the way Phelan was pitching. For the third-straight year, in a third classification, Bishop Kearney will play for a sectional title. The Kings defeated Irondequoit on Thursday, 7-0, to move into Friday’s Section V Class A1 title game against top-seeded Brighton. Kearney was led by 18 strikeouts from the St. Bonaventure-commit Phelan, who also notched four RBI at the dish.
Phelan’s 18 punchouts moved her past the 1400 mark for her varsity career, up to 1409. She remains fourth in New York state history and second in Section V history. The record-holder in both those rankings is former Bolivar-Richburg star Jordan Ingalls, who racked up 1603 strikeouts from 2003-2008.
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Early on Thursday, Kearney couldn’t find a breakthrough. Irondequoit’s Amanda Northup stymied the BK bats through three scoreless frames, matching Phelan’s opening zeros. But in the fourth, the Kings loaded the bases for Emily Tytler. She turned on a ball into left field which skipped by the outfielder, rolling toward the fence as three BK runners scored.
“We struggled a little bit in the beginning,” BK catcher Brie Boon said, “but once we got going, we got the bats going, we got our energy up.”
Kings load the bases and Emily Tytler clears them with this double. 3 – 0 Kings pic.twitter.com/cTFx6t9zDB
— Bishop Kearney Softball🥎 (@SoftballKearney) May 30, 2019
Then Kearney re-loaded the bases for Phelan, and she delivered the knockout blow. With the sun setting at Brockport High School and Phelan feeling good about her signature riseball, the Eagles wouldn’t make it back from 6-0 down.
“Everything just felt on today,” Phelan said.
In the last few innings, Phelan found control of her changeup, which she used for a couple of strikeouts looking. It’s quite the contrast to her riseball, which blows past hitters up in the zone. Instead, it floats and drops in, either under a hitter’s bat or too much slower to even pull the trigger.
Phelan supported herself at the plate once more in the sixth. Mack Emery tripled to left center, almost leaving the yard with one out on a deep liner. In stepped Phelan, who quickly went with the pitch to drop a ball into right for another run-scoring knock.
“It definitely wasn’t my pitch,” Phelan said. “I’m not quite sure why I swung at that. But I guess it worked out for the best.”
A 1-2-3 seventh closed out the game and sent the Kings on to another sectional final. The now-junior Phelan led Kearney as a freshman to the Class C New York state championship. A year ago, the Kings won in Class B before losing in the Far West Regional. This season, BK was moved up in class again and has yet to lose to a Section V opponent.
When Phelan blew strike three past an Eagles hitter for the last time Thursday, BK didn’t celebrate.
“We always tell all our players: Expect to play for a title,” Herbst said. “You saw by the way the game ended, we didn’t go nuts cheering. We kind of shook hands, said OK, what time’s the game tomorrow?”
It’s at 6 p.m, clashing with the BK Senior Ball. The Kings were already aware of the conflict though, and as Herbst reiterated, they expected to be in this position.
“Hopefully they’re ready,” Herbst added.
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