Not this time: Top-ranked Rocklin softball shuts down big bats of No. 3 Del Oro

Not again.

The top-ranked Rocklin softball team wasn’t going to let Del Oro’s big bats find a way past them a second time. Led by Brook Thompson’s careful effort on the mound, the Thunder picked their way to a 6-3 win at the Eagles’ home field Friday afternoon.

The last time they faced each other, Del Oro’s Maddie Moore had a pair of home runs in a 4-2 Eagles win. On Friday, Moore was issued three walks and teammate Jenna Birch had a walk and was hit by a pitch as Thompson preferred to carefully pitch around the biggest bats in the Del Oro lineup.

“She came in with a plan,” Rocklin coach Mallory Asaro said. “They’ve got some really great hitters, she’s a great pitcher. Sometimes when you have someone throwing hard and they get a bat on it anywhere, it’s going to be hit hard. She did a phenomenal job today of hitting her spots, mixing up her spots, and she adjusted.”

Del Oro’s leadoff batter, Haylee Englebrecht, came around to score in the first inning after a pair of walks to Birch and Moore left the bases loaded. A sacrifice fly from Kendra Connor brought Englebrecht home.

Then Thompson settled into her groove, allowing just an unearned run in the third inning. She gave up three hits and four walks in six innings of work. Teammate Brielle Wright closed out the game in the seventh inning.

It was no surprise that Thompson, who’s going to Boise State in the fall, picked her way through the Del Oro lineup. Del Oro and Rocklin are about six miles apart; after the game, Moore and Thompson hugged on the infield dirt and talked about the game.

“I play travel ball with her and I’m facing her in practice every day,” Thompson said. “So last game, she hit two home runs off me. Honestly, coming into this game, I had to have a game plan. Don’t give her the same pitches.

“It’s very stressful,” Thompson said of facing the Del Oro lineup. “It’s fun because it really makes your mind get going. You don’t stop thinking.”

Thompson’s effort earned a tip of the cap from Eagles coach Sean Erickson.

“We had three home runs last time we played them, Maddie Moore had two of them. They didn’t give her an intentional pass but you can’t pitch around a batter more than that. That’s a lot of respect to that young lady,” Erickson said. “Brook’s an amazing player, we tip our cap to that team, we think they’re great. We want to play the great teams and hope they think we’re a great team.”

Thompson’s effort gave the simmering Rocklin offense time to break out. With the game tied 2-2 in the top of the sixth, every Thunder batter came to the plate in a three-run outburst. Claudia Kirchner led the charge as she did all game, pounding out a single to start the inning and later scoring. A pair of errors allowed two unearned runs to score as Rocklin had just two hits in the three-run inning.

Kirchner had two singles and a triple, scoring three times.

“She does not get cheated,” Asaro said. “She’s been like that since she was a sophomore. Even when she’s not hitting well, she doesn’t get cheated. She’s swinging well. ...

“It’s always nice to see her walking up to the plate.”

The win was just another day at the office for the Thunder (13-1), who have won their last four games by a cumulative total of seven runs. Sierra Foothill League teams like Whitney, Folsom and Granite Bay are also keeping matters close with Rocklin. There’s still three weeks of league play to parse through; doesn’t Asaro know it.

“It’s one of the toughest in years the league has been,” she said. “And that team over there is phenomenal. And they’re young.

They’ll get one more look at each other when they square off again May 17.