Hardie whiffs 17 in no-hitter

Pitcher Lisa Hardie registered 17 of 21 outs via strikeout as she and her Hilton teammates dominated Charlotte/Marshall 11-0 in Section V softball quarterfinal playoff action.

The Cadets built a 3-0 lead in the second inning when Hardie hit a sacrifice fly to plate Shelly Sadler and Heather Irish stroked a two-out double down the left field line scoring Tara Larkin and Megan O'Connell.

Hilton made it 7-0 and sent nine batters to the plate in the fourth inning. O'Connell hit a two-RBI double to right scoring Alainna Bechtold and Sadler. O'Connell later scored on a wild pitch and Hardie, who reached on an error, crossed the plate on yet another throwing error.

The Cadets finished their scoring with four more runs in the fifth inning on two-RBI singles by O'Connell and Lauren Billotti.

Meanwhile Hardie was making life easy for her defense striking out 11 of the first 12 outs. She allowed one walk, hit one batter and another reached via error in picking up her first no-hitter of the season and second overall.

The fourth-seeded and 12-8 Cadets advanced to the Class AA semi-finals against eighth seeded Irondequoit, who upset top seed Webster Thomas in the quarterfinals. Hilton's season ended with a 2-1 loss to the Eagles.

June 3, 2007