The pitcher of the Riverhawks softball team threw a perfect game on April 3 in a 17-0 win against Virginia’s Christendom College.

Second-year health science student Jaclyn Nevins said she located her pitches well the entire game.

“As you play the game, you learn which batters are going to swing at which pitch and where locations need to be [and] not leaving a ball down the middle or easy to hit,” Nevins said. “So, as you grow and learn, it gets easier to throw as you go.”

Nevins, who also plays shortstop, said the April 3 game was her first perfect outing. 

She is the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in six-years since head coach Guy Klingensmith has run the team. Nevins struck out 13 of 15 batters through five innings. 

“It’s a very rare thing that happens,” Courtney Croson, who plays second base, noted. “Especially with having 13 strikeouts. It’s a very big accomplishment for her.”

Nevins said she didn’t feel pressure to keep the streak alive as the game continued on because she “knew I had defense behind me. So, I wasn’t really too worried.”

Klingensmith noted he was surprised Nevins pitched a perfect game. 

“It’s just uncommon to [pitch] a perfect game,” Klingensmith said. “Even in Major League Baseball, it’s really not common to pitch a perfect game.”

He said Nevin’s perfect game is “outstanding at any level. It’s a great accomplishment.” 

Klingensmith said the fastball and the breaking ball were working for her. 

He said he could see Nevins pitch another perfect game.

“I definitely hope that I could stay on top of it,” Nevins said. “We all play very hard. So, the goal always is to progress every game and keep learning. So, as we go on, I do hope…  we have a pretty good chance to stay successful. So I do hope that I’m able to do my part and stay successful as well.”

She added, “It’s always awesome to make accomplishments like that. So hopefully we could just take that and run with it throughout the season.”

Her teammates said Nevins has the skills to repeat the performance.

“She hit all of her spots,” Croson, a second-year transfer studies student, said. “She did a very good job [and she] worked on different pitches. And she was just very consistent.”

First-year film studies student Ryann Brooks, a right fielder, agreed.

“They weren’t really swinging the bat,” Brooks said. “Her pitches were moving pretty quick and [they had] great movement.”

She called Nevins’ perfect game “crazy.”

Brooks added she was proud of Nevins.

“You saw her smile a little bit,” Brooks noted. “And we’re like, ‘Whoa.’ “We were all pretty stoked about it.’”

Klingensmith said he won’t raise his expectations for Nevins.

“She has enough pressure on herself to perform every time she steps in the circle,” Klingensmith said.

He also said the players rooted her on during the game.

“We just cheered one another up,” Klingensmith noted. “We took it as a team. “That’s what we do.”