Glenbard South hits it where they ain’t
Rachel Cohen claimed she wasn’t aiming for an open spot in the outfield.
Either way, she found it.
Cohen doubled to start Glenbard South’s eighth inning and scored on a squeeze bunt, the No. 12 Raiders tacked on an insurance run and went on to beat No. 2 Downers Grove North 6-4 in a controversial finish Saturday at Downers Grove’s Doerhoefer Park.
Cohen’s one-out hit in a 4-4 tie would have been a single under normal circumstances. But before the inning Trojans second baseman Carolyn Nojiri was thrown out of the game for sitting by the entrance to her team’s dugout — an apparent violation of IHSA safety rules.
Without her, left fielder Rowan McGuire had to move to second base and the Trojans — their last remaining sub sick with mononucleosis — had to play the eighth inning with eight fielders, just two in the outfield.
Sure enough Cohen laced a single to left that kept rolling, and she got all the way to third when the throw in missed the cutoff.
“My team told me that they were trying to pitch outside so I wouldn’t hit to that side,” Cohen said, “but she pitched it, I hit it and it just happened to go where no one was. I just kept running until they told me to stop.”
Up next was Brianna Meath, who dropped a squeeze bunt that Cohen easily scored ahead of the throw on. Meath took third on Danielle Chitkowski’s single and scored when the throw went through to second on a double steal.
Downers Grove North (16-2) protested the Nojiri ejection, but the Trojans should have won the game before then. In the fifth inning tied 4-4, Sam Yeager doubled leading off, and a courtesy runner took third on a passed ball. She came home on a one-out deep fly to right, but on an appeal it was ruled that the runner left third base early.
“If we tag up like we’re supposed to the game’s over in seven innings,” Trojans coach Mark Magro said. “We beat ourselves. It was a good game, but then it got a little out of control. Little things cost us. Live and learn.”
Glenbard South (14-2) took a 4-1 lead early, batting around in a 4-run second inning. Hannah Davey, who doubled twice on the day, had a bases-clearing three-run double and scored on Chitkowski’s single. Downers Grove North came back to tie it in its half, Dale Ryndak’s two-run double bringing in the tying runs.
Glenbard South’s Stephanie Chitkowski (7-1) shut the door from there, throwing 52⁄3 innings shutout relief of older sister Danielle while striking out five and scattering 5 hits.
“Stephanie was lights-out,” Fonda said. “Those two are a great team and they work well together.”
Saturday’s win capped off an impressive week for the Raiders. Glenbard South beat Trinity 10-1 Wednesday and Downers Grove South 13-2 Thursday. The schedule doesn’t lighten up, with a matchup against Benet next Wednesday before a Friday reschedule of a postponed game with Marengo at Bandits Stadium.
Glenbard South’s 6 runs doubled the most Downers Grove North had given up in a game coming into Saturday.
“My girls picked a heck of a week to turn it on,” Fonda said, “and it’s fun to watch. I’m real proud of them because we’ve been talking about this week all year. They rose to the occasion.”
Yeager had 2 doubles and Maddie Wojciak 2 singles for Downers Grove North, which plays Benet on Tuesday.