GUYTON — Good wasn’t good enough for Bailey Kendziorski on Thursday. She opted for perfection.
The South Effingham freshman pitcher logged 12 strikeouts while allowing no hits or walks in a 4-0 Region 2-AAAAAA victory over Brunswick (3-12, 1-7).
“We had a good chuckle with her after the game,” Lady Mustangs head coach Jessica Evans said Sunday. “For (first-year assistant) coach (Jesse) Osborne, obviously, this was his first time being part of a perfect game and it was my first time as far as coaching goes. Coach Osborne asked her, ‘How does it feel?’ and she said, ‘Oh, this is like my sixth or seventh one.’ It’s been a couple months (since the last one).
“We kind of laughed and were like, ‘Well, all right then. Never mind.’”
Kendziorski’s other perfect outings occurred in summer league contests, not in high school against a Region 2-AAAAAA foe like Brunswick.
“She knew what was going on,” Evans said.
Evans said her ace’s bid at perfection was never threatened.
“At one time, she had eight strikeouts in a row,” she explained. “The balls I remember being hit were right at people. I remember Caraline Stone catching a couple balls in the catcher’s area but there was nothing that she had to like dive for.
“Everything else was just routine ground balls or fly balls.”
Evans said Kendziorski shook off a couple of Osborne’s pitch signals after reaching a 3-2 count on the last batter of the game. She opted for one that she was more confident that she could hurl for a strike.
“She was like, ‘I knew if I threw a ball I would be mad at myself for the rest of my career,” Evans said. “The (last batter) had fouled off a couple and we were just trying to change up where we were throwing the ball and Bailey wanted to stick to what her go-to (pitch) was. Her go-to had been fouled off quite a few times and she made us all laugh and chuckle a little bit because she stuck to some of her patterns and the things that she does with the count being the way it was.
“She did some things to double check herself, some superstitious things.”
Avery Roddenberry paced the Lady Mustangs (14-2-1, 6-1) at the plate with two hits, including a home run. She had two RBI.