Divine Child starting pitcher Jess Nelson was dealing, allowing just two Regina baserunners through three innings, striking out seven Saddlelites along the way.

But her Falcons were having trouble getting on the board, so Jess Nelson helped out Jess Nelson by hitting a 3-run home run in the top of what would be a five-run fourth inning, helping the No. 2-ranked Falcons to a 5-0 victory in their first of two games against Regina in Warren on Friday, May 9.

“Jess is something special,” said DC head coach Regina Dunn. “We’ve been talking about her for four years, literally, and she’s just grown every year, progressed every year and gotten better every year in different aspects of the game.

“She’s a great hitter, a great base runner. She’s a great third baseman. She’s, you know, just an all round player. She just loves the sport, and she does well at everything that she does, and she works hard.”

After the fourth inning home run, Nelson came back out and struck out the Saddlelites in order to prevent their CHSL rivals from immediately counter-punching.

“I’m glad I was able to do that, because our team just needed, like, a spark,” Nelson said. “We needed to get going. We were hitting them, but we were kind of hitting them right to them. So, like, once we were able to get going, I knew we would take that energy and produce it back on the field.”

Nelson, an Oakland softball commit, went on to strike out 15 batters while allowing three hits and getting three of her own.

She’s yet another in a long line of Catholic League standouts.

And while that constant challenge has done a number on Regina’s record — they’re 11-11 after the two losses on Friday — head coach Kristin Bultinck knows that players seeing players like Nelson will sharpen them for the postseason.

“It’s actually something I was just thinking about during this game,” Bultinck said after game one. “You know, we’re seeing good pitching, day-in and day-out, and that’s really preparing us for the state tournament at the end of the season, which is when you want your team to peak and be at their best. So, when my girls are up there taking good cuts and taking good at bats, if it’s not a successful at bat in that moment, it’s a success in the fact that we’re being prepared.”

Though they had just three hits, there was still a modicum of success as Chloe Younes and Sara Wilking each laced hard-hit doubles.

Saddlelite starter Veve Lewis started strong but was pulled during the unraveled fourth inning.

Only two of her allowed runs were earned, and Morgan Thimm backed her up well in relief, getting 3.1 innings of scoreless work with four strikeouts and three hits allowed.

Bultinck said that Regina has embraced the grind of the CHSL schedule and the learning moments that come with playing in one of the state’s most competitive leagues, and referenced their recent series against Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, in which they made a six-run comeback to force extra innings.

“There’s always competitive spirit in the Catholic League. Always,” Bultinck said. “The girls always want to come in and compete, they always want to come and win. And so, I’ve seen them stay up in the dugout. You know, we’re down in this game and they’re still battling.”

Divine Child took game two, 5-3, after scoring first on an RBI single by Nelson in the first inning, but Regina — as they’ve been known to do — battled back to take a 2-1 advantage in the second inning off a double by Morgan Thimm, who then scored on an error.

The Falcons immediately retook the lead, 3-2, with RBIs from Alexis Hansen and Katherine Modrzejewski. Two more runs in the fourth bumped the advantage to 5-2, and Veve Lewis’ solo home run in the seventh brought the tally to its’ final.

It marks three-straight wins for the Falcons, who opened the week with back-to-back rainouts on Monday (vs. Regina) and Tuesday (vs. Lutheran North). They dropped their first of two against the Mustangs, which complicated their CHSL standing, before taking the second and then both against the Saddlelites.

Like Regina, they’re riding that wave of facing elite competition to prepare themselves for the big ones later this month.

“You play the best to be the best,” Dunn said. “You have a championship attitude, and when you do have those bumps and bruises, the biggest aspect is, are you going to be able to learn from that? And what’s your resilience look like? And that’s what we’re really talking about right now, because we’re not playing any easy team.”