Knowing umps part of edge for Hartland's Kylie Swierkos in perfect game vs. Churchill
HARTLAND — For the softball pitcher who’s done her homework, it’s not enough to know who’s in the batter’s box.
It also pays to know who’s behind the plate.
Senior Kylie Swierkos has compiled a mental notebook on the folks in blue calling the balls and strikes during her three seasons pitching for Hartland.
It’s not the only reason why she’s having a dominant season, but it all adds up.
Swierkos threw a five-inning perfect game Monday in the seventh-ranked Eagles’ 10-0 victory over Livonia Churchill in the semifinals of the KLAA tournament.
She struck out 10 of the 15 batters she faced and threw strikes on 45 of 57 pitches.
“My rise was working really well today, keeping them high in the zone,” Swierkos said. “The umpire we had, we know he likes them high in the zone. I threw a lot in and threw a lot up.
“We obviously get the same umpires a lot to come out here, so you kind of get to know each umpire, what they do and don’t like, and use that to your advantage.”
It was the second perfect game and third no-hitter of the season for Swierkos, whose most impressive pitching performance may have been last season when she threw a one-hitter against a hot-hitting Canton team in the KLAA championship game.
Swierkos and her teammates will return to that stage at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Novi to face Livonia Stevenson, which won 2-1 in eight innings over Novi in the other semifinal.
“It definitely gives me a little bit of confidence, because we’ve been there before,” Swierkos said. “We’ve played at Novi so many times, so it’s a very familiar field to play on. I’ve got a lot of faith with my team behind me, and they’re really all the confidence I need.”
That confidence is a two-way street.
“Any time Kylie’s on the mound, everybody’s calm and cool and collected,” Hartland coach Taylor Wagner said. “They just know we have to do our job. Sometimes that’s a great thing, sometimes it can be a bad thing, because you don’t want to be complacent.
“But in a game like this, all we have to do is focus on our bats. She’s going to take care of business, our bats are going to take care of business. It was fun.”
Hartland scored two runs in each of the first three innings, then ended the game via the 10-run mercy rule by scoring four times in the fifth. Riley Phillips singled home Reese Dunny to end the game.
Phillips was 2-for-3 and drove in three runs. Sadie Malik was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Hartland improved to 24-3-1 with single games against Stevenson and Pinckney and a doubleheader against Linden remaining before its district semifinal June 3 against Holly.
The Eagles will face a Stevenson team that received honorable mention in the latest state rankings and is 27-5.
“The KLAA championship is huge,” Wagner said. “That’s definitely what we circle on the calendar first. You have to feel success. That’s really the first time you get to see that in a season. It’s cool to know you did that as a team. It’s great to win districts, it’s great to win regionals; that’s your goal, that’s what you want to do. But this is a huge deal to us, so we want to make sure we can take that home.”
Churchill is 21-11 and on a likely collision course with crosstown rival Stevenson in the district championship game June 3 at Stevenson.
“They’re our biggest rival,” Churchill coach Abe Vinitski said. “We beat them once, they beat us once. Our local reporter says it’s the game to watch in our area next Saturday. We’re excited about it, but we have a few games left to prepare.”
The Chargers played five games in the Michigan Challenge Saturday and Sunday, going 2-3.
“It’s always tough playing this game after we’ve played in the Michigan Challenge,” Vinitski said. “Most teams do it. We’ve just got to learn to overcome that. We didn’t hit the way we usually hit. We threw our No. 4 pitcher (Sydney Kendall), who I thought pitched really well. She gave up six earned and four unearned to a top-five team in the state. We were just flat from the weekend.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Knowing umps part of edge for Hartland's Kylie Swierkos in perfect game
