No. 1 Benton sweeps CPU, marches to 32-1

VAN HORNE — John Olachnovitch knows pitching, and he knows how rare elite pitching can be.

'When you have somebody like (Amber Fiser), who throws in the 60s, that changes the reaction time. You just don't see a lot of that in the state right now,' said Olachnovitch, veteran coach at Center Point-Urbana.

Fiser took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Elizabeth Hearn broke it up, then Alyssa Wiebel followed with a three-hitter as Class 3A top-rated Benton Community took control of the Wamac Conference West Division softball race with a 3-0, 9-1 sweep of No. 5 CPU on Thursday at Benton Community High School.

'My riseball was working well tonight,' Fiser said. 'That's my go-to strikeout pitch.'

Benton cranked three home runs in the nightcap — from Angie Gorkow, Wiebel and Anna Stenberg — and improved to 32-1 overall, 10-0 in the division.

Gorkow, the Bobcats' right fielder, is an eighth-grader.

'I never expected to start this year,' she said. 'I was hoping I would be a pinch runner, maybe get to hit a few times. This is everything I hoped and dreamed of.'

Fiser (17-1) whiffed 12 and allowed two walks, lowering her season ERA to 0.06. She has 203 strikeouts — compared to 16 walks — in 108 innings of work.

'I had a lot of confidence, with my defense behind me,' she said.

Benton got single tallies in each of the first three innings of Game 1. The Bobcats scored an unearned run in the first frame, then Jessica Heilman singled home Stenberg in the second and Gorkow's sacrifice fly plated Wiebel in the third.

The remaining drama centered around Fiser's no-hit bid. Hearn ended it with a clean single to left to open the top of the seventh.

'I'm just happy we won,' Fiser said. '(Hearn) earned it.'

Heilman's sacrifice fly in the third inning broke a scoreless tie in Game 2, then Gorkow went deep for a two-run shot in the fourth to make it 3-0.

'I was just trying to get a good hit,' Gorkow said. 'The first game, that wasn't what I'd been hoping for (offensively).'

Maddie Karr's solo shot — her 13th of the season — brought CPU (17-10, 4-2) within 3-1 in the sixth, but the Bobcats erupted for six in the bottom of the frame, highlighted by Wiebel's home run (her 11th this summer) and a two-run blast by Stenberg.

BENTON COMMUNITY 3-9, CENTER POINT-URBANA 0-1

At Van Horne

Game 1

Center Point-Urbana 000 000 0 — 0 1 2

Benton Community 111 000 x — 3 3 0

Samantha Croghan and Elizabeth Hearn. Amber Fiser and Jaicee Lyons. W — Fiser (17-1). L — Croghan (10-5).

Game 2

Center Point-Urbana 000 001 0 — 1 3 2

Benton Community 001 206 x — 9 8 0

Bailey Smith, Natalea Cook (7) and Elizabeth Hearn. Alyssa Wiebel and Jaicee Lyons. W — Wiebel (10-0). L — Smith (7-5). HR — CPU: Maddie Karr (13); BC: Angie Gorkow (2), Wiebel (11), Anna Stenberg (2).

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com