Quirke is perfect for SOU

“It was pretty cool,” Quirke said. “My initial reaction was just like, “OK! Wow!” They’re just super special. … There were just a lot of underlying, meaningful things. And everyone was super excited.”

One of those underlying things was that Quirke teamed with catcher Riley Donovan (Half Moon Bay), another CSM transfer, as her battery mate. The righty faced the minimum through seven regulation innings, striking out eight, and didn’t allow a baserunner.

Not that Donovan — who was so locked in to her catching duties — knew there was a perfecto in progress.

“Here’s the thing: I knew she was going for a no-hitter, and I knew she was doing extremely well, but I didn’t know it was a perfect game until like three minutes after the game,” Donovan said. “I mean, we were all hugging and stuff, and I was like: ‘Wait a minute! Something’s going on here!’ And that’s when I realized how special it was.”

No-hitters occur more regularly in softball than in baseball, but perfect games are equally as rare in both sports. SOU head coach Jessica Pistole said she has never coached a perfect game. She has only witnessed one, and she threw it, at Biola University in the early 2000s.

“So, it’s rare,” Pistole said.

While Donovan wasn’t aware of the perfecto, nearly everyone else sure was.

“As it got closer and closer, we all weren’t talking about it, but it was obviously in the back of everybody’s mind what was going on,” Pistole said.

It was pretty smooth sailing for Quirke, who induced seven groundouts and six flyouts, while utilizing an efficient 76 pitches. Most of the defensive plays behind her looked routine, with the best play, according to Quirke, coming at the start of the sixth inning when right fielder Olivia Mackey ran down a tailing flyball to nab it, on the run, in foul territory.

Donovan recounted the second out of the last inning, a towering popup on the infield. Second baseman Hannah Shimek hauled that one in, though Donovan said it was a matter of the senior making a difficult play look easy.

“It was a mile up there, and those can be super hard to track,” Donovan said. “It was kind of like an everybody-was-holding-their-breath situation, and she handled it so well. She owned the pop fly. So, that was a really cool moment.”

Quirke has always been renowned for her offensive prowess. The left-handed hitter has long evoked memories of the great George Brett, hitting for a career .417 average at Hillsdale; a .446 career mark at CSM; and ranking second in the Cascade Collegiate Conference in 2019 with a .444 average.

“In my mind, she came out and was crushing the ball offensively,” Pistole said, “and was obviously a great infielder — great glove, great arm — and she did a really good job in the bullpen that we have. So, in my mind, she was the total package. … So, I definitely had high expectations for her and, obviously, she’s been stellar for us.”

But Quirke took off in the circle as a sophomore at CSM. As a freshman in 2017, she made just 11 appearances, all in relief. But with 31 appearances and 16 starts as a sophomore, she posted a 16-2 record.

She and Donovan didn’t play together at CSM, though. In fact, they never played together until landing at SOU. Now, Donovan is her regular catcher. And the results have been stellar, with SOU off to an 11-1 start this season. And, on Feb. 26, the results were quite literally perfect.

“Definitely, there’s no pitcher without a catcher, and there’s no perfect game without a good catcher back there,” Quirke said. “So, hats off to her.”

SOU has proven a CSM pipeline in recent years. Infielder Kayleen Smith, pitcher Lacie Crawford, and Riley Donovan’s older sister Harlee Donovan have all gone from wearing Bulldog Blue to Raider Red. And, along with Quirke and Riley Donovan, Allie Stines (Capuchino) — who had three hits out of the leadoff spot in the perfect game — also transferred from CSM.

Pistole said she hopes more CSM transfers are on the way.

“Dear Lord, I hope so,” Pistole said. “[CSM head coach Nicole Quigley-Borg] is awesome, and I connect with her … several times throughout the course of our season. I’d love to get any CSM players I can get up here.”