Reinagel pitches Notre Dame to crown in SoftballFest tournament

When Lauren Reinagel pitched for the Notre Dame junior varsity team last fall as a freshman she said she had about four other teammates sharing time with her on the mound.

But now a sophmore, Reinagel is the varsity's ace and she has been called upon to pitch five of her team's first six games. Two of those games came Saturday, including a 9-0 victory over Kelly to help her host team win the Notre Dame Softballfest tournament.

Reinagel said her arm was actually feeling stronger during the second game Saturday.

"I'd pitch another one if I could," she said. "I got a lot better from the Oran game."

But Reinagel was pretty excited just to get the win over the Hawks.

"Kelly is one of our biggest rivals and I just wanted to beat them," she said.

Against the Hawks, Reinagel struck out 11 batters while allowing just one walk and three hits. In the earlier semifinal game -- a 2 p.m. start against Oran -- she had a similar pitching line, striking out seven while allowing just one walk, three hits and one unearned run.

Reinagel has not allowed an earned run in any of her five starts.

Notre Dame lost its two top pitchers from last year's team to graduation: Beth Schnurbusch, a two-time all-state pitcher, and Miranda Schlosser.

"I thought [pitching] was the one thing we were really going to struggle with this fall and what we were going to miss the most were those two on the mound," Bulldogs coach Jeff Graviett said. "But Lauren has stepped in and done a great job."

Graviett also gave his praise to Danielle Dock, who pitched the one game in which Reinagel did not appear, tossing a no-hitter.

"I'm very pleased with our two sophomore pitchers right now," the coach added. "There have been no sophomore downs yet."

Scott City drops two

Scott City lost a pair of one-run games in the SoftballFest, losing 2-1 to Chaffee and 6-5 to Farmington.

Emily Essner suffered the losses in both games.

Becky Holder had four hits on the day for Scott City.