Most elite high school softball teams boast a shutdown pitcher, someone who can just completely throttle the opposing offense.
Alissa Koch of Racine Case, who has pitched several no-hitters and one-hitters this season while racking up double-digit strikeouts each game, or Alyssa Roberts of Kenosha Tremper are two examples.
New Berlin Eisenhower coach Jeff Setz is in the enviable position of having not one, but two, of those types of aces this season.
Junior Kayla Schlegel came into this week at 8-0, allowing 24 hits and three earned runs in 49 innings for an earned-run average of 0.43, with 96 strikeouts and 14 walks.
Those are impressive stats, but fellow junior Lauren Beres had given up 21 hits and one lone earned run in 46 innings for a microscopic ERA of 0.15, with 82 strikeouts and just one walk.
How do you choose between them? Setz does not have that problem; he has simply alternated their starts this season.
"Having two pitchers like that is a blessing," Setz said. "You can't overuse either one. If one has trouble, you always have the other you can bring in there. They push each other to work harder, too."
To make Setz's job even easier, both girls have bought completely into the situation. "Surprisingly, I like it," Schlegel said. "We have a fresh arm for every game. Lauren and I have talked about it. Having two pitchers just makes us that much stronger."
Beres said both girls knew after last season, and the graduation of ace Kim Perla, that they would share the load this year. "It's been helpful, especially with as many games as we've been playing, like five or six a week," she said.
Clearly, there are no outsized egos here.
"They're good kids, and they realize we have a unique situation," said Setz, who added that he has never before had two pitchers of that caliber in the same class.
Perhaps the best news for Setz, and the bad news for the rest of the Woodland Conference, is that both will be back for another season.
