Metea Valley pounds South Elgin

When Metea Valley’s hitters got locked in at the plate Friday afternoon, the Mustangs blew through South Elgin like, well, a “Storm”.

Blanked by South Elgin junior Sam Bolin for the first three innings, Metea Valley scored 17 runs on 17 hits in the final three innings, routing the Storm 17-3 in an Upstate Eight Conference softball game in South Elgin.

“We started out slow those first couple innings but then we just dialed into (Bolin),” said Mustangs coach Kris Kalivas. “She’s a little patterned on the mound and we just got into her.”

And how. While four South Elgin errors made the 9 runs the Mustangs scored in the sixth inning unearned, there was no doubt Metea had its bats going on this day.

Junior Jen Faassen led the way for the Mustangs (6-4, 4-3) with a 4-for-4 day that included 2 doubles and 4 RBI.

“I just had to wait for my pitch,” Faassen said. “We’re a pretty good hitting team. We kind of got down on ourselves in the first inning but we came back. We never let it get to us. We all know we can come back and we pick each other up.”

Metea spotted South Elgin (12-7, 5-3) a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Storm senior Katelyn Stonecipher led off the home half of the inning with a towering home run to left-center field. The Mustangs then committed 3 errors in allowing the Storm to plate two more runs.

But from that point, Metea played errorless softball and winning pitcher Alexa Caputo and relievers Stephanie Bova and Jenna Hall held the Storm to just 3 hits the rest of the way.

Kalivas went to Bova in the bottom of the fourth after Bolin and Shannon Conway opened the inning with singles off Caputo. Bova walked Taylor Rees to load the bases but she then struck out South Elgin’s next three hitters to preserve a 5-3 lead the Mustangs had earned in the top of the inning.

“Our pitchers compliment each other well and they know their roles,” Kalivas said. “(Bova) did a great job of getting out of that jam.”

Alyssa Coletto had 3 hits for the Mustangs, including a triple, and 4 RBI, Anna Petersen had 2 hits and 2 RBI, Lauren Carlson had 3 hits, including a double, and 3 RBI, Emily Baker had 2 hits with a double and No. 9 hitter Antoinette Senese was 4-for-5 with 4 bunt singles. The Mustangs pounded out 21 hits in all.

Conway added a double for the Storm.

“I just told them to remember the feeling and forget the game,” said South Elgin coach Jason Schaal after an exceptional short postgame meeting. “We made too many errors. Physical errors are a part of the game but (six) is unacceptable.

“We may have to make some changes. We’ve been on a good roll but we’ll have to straighten it out or we’re going to have a long two weeks starting Monday. It hasn’t snowballed on us like it did today. It was a very frustrating day.”