EF’s Larcinese tosses no-hitter against Yough

By JEREMY TEPPER

MVI Sports

Kailey Larcinese takes having a proper mindset seriously. Before every game, she gets her head in the right place. And for the important games, Larcinese tries to lock in.

Against Yough on Monday, the Warriors’ pitcher knew a win against one of the top section competitors would be significant, and she responded by throwing a no-hitter to lead the Warriors to a 2-0 victory. Larcinese struck out 12 batters and walked just one over 82 pitches.

“I think my whole mindset coming into this game was a huge thing for me. I knew that they’re probably one of the best teams we’re gonna see, so I needed to be on top of my pitches and on top of my game,” she said. “I had that mindset going into the game, so I thought I was overprepared before I got here.”

Larcinese and Warriors coach Harry Rutherford both said that the riseball was the key to Larcinese’s success.

“Today she was on. She was locked in,” Rutherford said. “She was spotting the ball well and she had a lot of movement on the riseball.

“We didn’t throw that many fastballs because they’re a good fastball-hitting team. Where we would normally be throwing the fastball, we were throwing the riseball and we were mixing it up with the changeup and the drop.”

Yough coach Dutch Harvey called Larcinese the best pitcher in 4A, but thought his team’s youth led to an impatient approach at the plate.

“This is when you show your colors when you’re starting five freshmen. This is what happens when they chase bad pitches,” Harvey said. “They were throwing riseball after riseball and you can’t hit that pitch. These kids don’t understand that yet since they’re young.”

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