After pitching a perfect game in her first showdown with Southwestern, Fredonia junior pitcher Jordan Lucas was able to give her senior teammates the perfect sendoff gift with another league title as she struck out 17 batters, walked two and gave up one hit in an 8-0 victory over the Trojans.

“It’s always nice to send those girls off on a high note,” Fredonia head coach Jesse Beers said after the win. “We’ve had a pretty good run here at Fredonia for a while, we’ve always been at least in the running for a league title, this year we were a little fortunate and got a little help down the stretch. We again at least own a share of the league title which is nice for those girls, I think that’s three or four years in a row. So to send those girls off on that it’s real nice. You saw them all contribute today which is nice, other than Sarah (Davis) who is hurt, we had some base hits and some nice plays in the field.”

Coming on as a bit of a surprise star in her sophomore year, the junior pitcher is well known by everyone in the league at this point and Lucas’ improvement is showing both in the circle and at the plate. On top of her 17 strikeouts and one-hit performance that was perfect through five innings, Lucas went 3 for 3 with three doubles, an RBI and her courtesy runner Leah Marsh scored three times.

“She is a special talent,” Beers said about Lucas. “The talent is there, but more than anything it is the work ethic. That’s a girl who works day in and day out, she works all summer long, so when you combine that kind of talent and that kind of work ethic you’re going to get really good things. Last year she took the league by kind of surprise, but it’s no surprise. It’s on both ends. She’s been our most consistent hitter all year long, she does it in the circle and eventually when she leaves this place I could easily see her being a first or third baseman at the next level if she doesn’t stay in the circle.”

Southwestern’s Ashlynn Swan tags out Fredonia’s Maddie Ambrose attempting to steal during Monday’s CCAA Division 1 West softball game at Fredonia High School. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

Lucas finished with the most extra-base hits, but it was Callie Draggett with the biggest as the eighth-grader demolished a solo home run to right-center field in the bottom of the fourth inning. The two seniors playing got in on the offensive action with Jenna Truby connecting on a pair of singles with two RBIs and Gaby Matos also hit an RBI single.

Southwestern waited 11 innings to get a base runner against Lucas with Madison Cresanti working a walk to lead off the fifth inning. Cresanti almost made her way home with Arianna Silakowski sacrificing her to second and then a wild pitch moved her 60 feet away from scoring. The Trojans were left stranded when Lucas got back into her groove with two straight strikeouts.

McKenna Bogdanowicz worked a walk in the sixth which kept the no-hit bid alive, but it was one swing of the bat by Peyton Lillie in the seventh inning to record the Trojans’ first hit against Fredonia this year as she hammered a ball into right-center field for a double. Lucas once again showed her poise as she finished the inning with two more strikeouts and the 8-0 win.

Silakowski started the first four innings for the Trojans and struck out four, while Madelyn Burnett finished the last two and struck out a pair.

“Both of their pitchers threw the ball well today,” Beers said about Silakowski and Burnett. “They’re both getting it up there pretty quick. It took us a while, we made a few adjustments early, I thought we were being a little tentative.”

Around the league, Olean (14-3, 10-2) shut out Allegany-Limestone 14-0 to claim a share of the league title with Fredonia (12-4, 10-2). Today Falconer (10-5, 9-2) can grab a share if it takes a win at Southwestern (6-7, 5-6).