Leidner leads Bronx Science streak

Maybe they haven’t gotten their due this season. Maybe the successes of the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141, RKA) and John F. Kennedy Campus on the PSAL ‘B’ level overshadowed their achievements a little bit.

But after watching Bronx Science’s softball team mow down Stevenson High while barely breaking a sweat, well, it appears the Wolverines are prepared to be a major player on the PSAL ‘A’ level before all is said and done.

Take Monday afternoon, for instance. Science coach Thomas Morris sent diminutive sophomore Anna Leidner to the mound in search of the Wolverines 11th win of the season and all Leidner did was strike out 14 of the 15 batters she faced in her five innings of work. And when Ava Cutler fanned two of the three batters she faced in relief in the sixth inning, Bronx Science’s masterpiece was complete as they rolled to a 10-0 victory at Harris Field.

The win leaves the Wolverines (11-2) just one victory shy of locking up the PSAL Bronx ‘A’ Division title for the second year in a row, which would be a first for Bronx Science.

“[Anna] has really taken off this year,” Morris said. “She can hit the [strike] zone like crazy. She moves the ball around and she is just tough to hit.”

Tough to hit might be understating it just a tad. Leidner was so dominant Monday that she didn’t allow a single Stevenson player to put a ball in play through the first four innings, striking out 12 straight as she cruised. It wasn’t until a groundout to lead off the fifth inning that any Science player other than Leidner and her catcher, Olivia Turano, got to see any action in the field. Leidner rebounded from that groundout to strike out the next two batters to end the fifth inning and her day on the mound.

“This was about usual for her,” Morris aid. “She’s very consistent. She moves it around. My biggest concern as a coach is to not give our opponent walks. If we can prevent that we can be fine.”

The soft-spoken Leidner was pretty matter-of-fact about her outing saying it was more or less a game of pitching to Turano’s glove location behind the plate.

“I was just trying to throw it at the spots where [Turano] was putting her glove and I was hitting them pretty well,” Leidner said. “And I think my speed was better than it usually is. I was happy about that. It was definitely my best performance of the year.”

Both Turano, who had a pair of hits, and Cutler, who had one, drove in two runs to pace a Bronx Science offense that scored once in the first and three times in the second before breaking the game open with a five-run fourth inning. The Wolverines later added a run in the sixth to cap their scoring.

It was a solid all-around day for the Wolverines, who had battled inconsistency with their offense at times this season, according to Morris.

“It’s all about the hitting,” Morris said. “Our hitting has been very inconsistent. There are times when we hit like that team from last year (which reached the PSAL ‘A’ quarterfinals) and that’s been our challenge, keeping the hitting consistent. We have the hitters to do it, but it’s just a matter of keeping it consistent.”

With just three games remaining in the regular season, the Wolverines will be looking to wrap up the division title — and make a little Bronx Science history — with one more win. The Wolverines travel to Brooklyn Thursday to take on a dangerous Telecommunications High School team that leads the Brooklyn ‘A’ Division with a 10-2 record. Monday it’s Beacon High School at home before the regular-season finale against neighborhood rival American Studies.  

“That was our goal coming into the year, to be the first Bronx Science team to ever repeat as champs,” Morris said. “We’ve had two losses all year. We lost our first game against [High School for] Construction. We lost that 18-8 so we just flushed that one and reset. The other loss came vs. [perennial PSAL power] Tottenville.”

But if Monday’s performance was any indication, these Wolverines have more than enough talent to grab the one last victory they need to lock up that second straight division title and then move on to the PSAL playoffs. 

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Leidner said. “We’d be very excited to do that.”