The defensive effort and energy were there for Aberdeen Central, but was so was a standout opposing pitcher on Friday afternoon.

Rapid City Stevens rode the pitching of Lainey Van Zee to a 10-0 softball victory over the Golden Eagles at Manor Park. Van Zee threw a no-hitter, struck out 19 batters and also crushed a two-run home run to lead the Raiders.

“She has good control of the game for sure,” said Central coach Cassidy Neer, “and you can tell there’s a calmness on their defense when she’s pitching and that goes a long way.”

Van Zee kept the Central batters off stride throughout the contest.

“It’s the adjustment that’s the hard part. It’s not the contact, it’s your timing,” said Central catcher Alivia Roettele, one of two Golden Eagles to reach base. “I feel myself I have better timing with faster pitchers compared to slower pitchers. As a team, just need to get our timing better, just a tad bit.”

Roettele reached on an error and advanced into scoring position with no outs on a passed ball during the third inning of a scoreless game. However, Van Zee recorded three straight strikeouts to get out of the frame.

“That’s kind of what we talked about before the game, is we really needed to capitalize on every baserunner we got on base, making sure every at-bat we took it seriously,” Neer said. “And what we focused on this whole week going into practice was getting minimal reps, but capitalizing on those reps to kind of simulate what that looks like in a game.”

Van Zee walked just one batter in the contest, that coming in the fifth inning when Rachel Siefken battled her way on base.

“It’s definitely a change, because she was a very very good pitcher; very talented,” Siefken said. “Our coach told us you have to have an approach where you have to battle for the ball.”

Siefken took extra reps in practice on Thursday to help her preparation at the plate.

“The balls that aren’t necessarily good, you know you can hit you just want to throw them to the side and that’s what I did,” Siefken said, “and I battled back and I kept the ones high and I got walked.”

However, Van Zee was up the challenge, quickly recording two more outs to get the Raiders off the field.

“You watch the ball out of their hand and you see how quick it’s coming through,” Siefken said of facing Van Zee, who will be heading to Mount Marty to play next season. “I had my step going earlier, so my hands could get through faster.”

Van Zee put Stevens on the board with a two-run home run to dead center in the third inning. The Raiders gradually extended their lead with four runs in each of the sixth and seventh frames.

Despite the 10-run loss, the Golden Eagles felt the final score did not indicate the closeness of the contest.

“We played amazing today,” Siefken said. “The score doesn’t show how we played.”

Central’s defense made numerous plays in the field throughout the game.

“On defense they looked really good. Stevens hit the ball,” Neer said. “We looked fantastic on defense. We just got to keep capitalizing and working on that stuff at the plate.”

The Golden Eagles even turned a double play in the field when they recorded a ground out and then nailed a runner trying to advance to third base.

“That was amazing. … The adrenaline was going,” Roettele said.

The game was played on the dirt infield of Manor Park. Central normally plays on turf at Koehler Hall of Fame Field, however Northern State had home games there on Friday.

“It’s definitely an adjustment because normally our home games are on turf and this is the dirt field,” Roettele said, “and I feel we adjusted to the dirt really well.”

Central, still searching for its first win of the season, plays host to Sturgis at 10 this morning, followed by a game against Spearfish at 1 this afternoon, both at Manor Park.

“I think if we have our defense today and have better hitting (Saturday), we could see a win,” Siefken said.

Rapid City Stevens 000 314 4 – 10 10 1

Aberdeen Central 000 000 0 – 0 0 1

Lainey Van Zee and Addie Hock; Kaylee Kiesow, Kylee Hoffman (6) and Alivia Roettele. HR – Rapid City Stevens, Van Zee.