Grenzebach’s Pitching, Two-Run Blast Leads Griffins Past Collinsville

GLEN CARBON – The Father McGivney Catholic High School softball team is coming off a hard-fought 10-15 campaign in 2025.

The Griffins only graduated one senior from a year ago and bring back most of the pieces to the puzzle. That improvement showed on Wednesday as McGivney hosted the Collinsville Kahoks in a non-conference clash and won 5-2.

With the result, McGivney is 1-1 on the young season. It lost its first four games last year, including a 5-4 season-opening loss to the Kahoks.

“Collinsville, they have a lot of young talent too, but they’ve got us the last two years, so to kind of stop that streak and get it this year feels nice,” McGivney head coach Mel Thomas said.

Avery Grenzebach started on the mound for the Griffins and went the distance, pitching six shutout innings with eight strikeouts, only allowing three hits and two runs (both unearned).

She was also dominant offensively.

Harper Schagemann got on via a one-out single in the bottom of the first, bringing up Grenzebach who crushed a two-run shot to left-center field that quite literally left a dent on the scoreboard to make it 2-0 early on.

“Yeah, she did,” Thomas said. “The fun thing though is when you’re watching her, she’s not trying to. It just happens. That makes it even sweeter sometimes.”

Grenzebach went 2-for-3 on the day with two RBI. Bella Bridges also had a couple of hits and RBI.

Bridges drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth to score Eve Stanhaus and Molly Strack lined out to score Emma Brewster to make it 4-0.

Bridges had another RBI single in the sixth to get it to 5-0.

During the top of the seventh, the Kahoks got some baserunners.

Makenna Trice hit a leadoff single and eventually got all the way around to third via a dropped pop fly. With runners on second and third, McGivney saw another error in the outfield that allowed Trice to score. Another error scored Lilly Paarlberg to make it 5-2.

The Griffins committed three errors, all in the seventh inning. In their season-opener, a 13-2 loss to Roxana, McGivney had 12 errors.

“Definitely think it was a little bit of first-game jitters,” Thomas said about the game against the Shells. “We have a lot of new faces. Whether they’re coming back out as an upperclassman, and we have some freshmen out in the field, so just working past that and just approaching it as a new day, new opportunities.”

Collinsville is now 1-3 on the season. McGivney outhit the Kahoks 6-3.

❮ ❯

More like this:

Grenzebach Shines on Softball Field in Senior Season – Is A Byron, Carlson, Petri, & Kalb Athlete of the Month for McGivney

Mar 24, 2026

Jayla Dickson Has Three Hits: Marquette Catholic Girls Softball Defeats Father McGivney 17-10

Mar 27, 2026

Collinsville's offense was stifled by Mater Dei pitching, with only four hits and one RBI recorded in the 11-2 loss on opening day.

Mar 12, 2026

Isaac Wendler Powers Father McGivney’s Big Win Over Routt

Apr 22, 2026

Bordoni Strikes Out 13 as Collinsville Romps Past Granite City Softball

5 days ago