Staff photo/Brian Yauger On Monday, Matthews junior Eva Shugart slid into third base during the team's 12-0 win.
JOHNSTON — Matthews got off to a strong start, scoring five points in the first inning to defeat league rival Maplewood and lead the Rockets to a 12-0 victory.
“We played three really, really good teams this weekend, two of whom will probably make it to regionals, if not the state final four. Big emotional disappointment, but no, they came out of the gate and scored some runs right away in the first inning.” Matthews coach Jim Nicula said. “Asia (Pate) has done a very good job in the circle. She's been very consistent and has kept things on track when she's been in the circle. A lot in terms of first strike counts and things like that. I know the guys. It was a good start, there was a little bit of dead space, but I'm sure we'll be fine.”
Pate contributed to the shutout win over the Rockets, recording a forceout at home that would have given Maplewood its first points of the game. Pate pitched a lot over the weekend and was tired late, but the plan is to rest him for today's game against Bloomfield.
“She pitched well this week. We decided to use her a little more this weekend than we originally planned.” Nikula said. “She pitched parts of three games and one full game, so maybe at the end, she got a little tired there, but tomorrow we're going to give her a rest and go to someone else on the staff, and then I We're going to face off against Pima Tuning Valley on Wednesday. ”
Nicula is preparing her daughters for the state elections. Even after a big win, the longtime Mustangs coach remains tough but fair in his postgame speech. With Matthews aiming higher than winning in April, Coach Nicula is holding his team to a higher standard.
The last four trips involved a lot of things, and maintaining standards was a major part of it.
“Honestly, there's a lot of luck involved. You need luck to stay healthy. The matchups you get, considering when and who you play, a lot of different things, and just a hungry spirit and belief and confidence. So it always gives you confidence.” Nikula said. “Again, they're still 15, 16-year-old, sometimes 14-year-old kids, and failure is hard to deal with, especially for teenagers. Maintain that confidence and build on yourself. It just makes you believe that you can do it. It's easy when things are going well, but it's harder when things aren't going well, so it's just confidence.”
In her first season with the program, Rockets coach Jessica Urcheck is trying to turn Maplewood around. It wasn't the result they were hoping for, but there were some building blocks.Now all that's left to do is clean up the errors
“I would have been happy with an 8-0 score because they came out hitting the ball hard in the first inning.” Urchek said. “We had a couple of key errors in the last inning that cost us and gave them some easy runs. We knew they were starting to catch up to faster pitching and could play at this level. I hope you will.”
Maplewood will play Windham today at Windham.First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Do you have any interesting stories? Email Brian Yauger at byauger@tribtoday.com. Follow @_brinyauger on X (formerly Twitter).
