Lythberg, Prospect produce against Meadows

A 10-day rest did Prospect’s Hanna Lythberg a lot of good — and was treacherous to Rolling Meadows.

Lythberg, who had stayed off the pitching mound in recent days due to turf toe, returned to the hill Tuesday and stymied the Mustangs.

No. 12 Prospect (11-25) blanked host and No. 7 Rolling Meadows, 3-0, and will meet No. 4 Barrington (29-7) in Saturday’s Class 4A softball regional final at 11 a.m.

“I drag my foot super hard when I pitch and when I bat I push off on that toe,” Lythberg said. “But it felt good tonight. But I still think I could have done better.”

While Lythberg was able to be on her toe, the senior kept the Mustangs on their heels with her fastball and changeup. Lythberg scattered 2 hits and fanned while walking none.

“Hanna pitched real well again” Prospect coach Jim Adair said. “She has done that all year, but we would make some errors or not hit. But we put it all together tonight.”

Prospect was able to give Lythberg some breathing room in the top of the second thanks to a couple of errors by the Mustangs.

With two outs, Ally Schuldt blooped a double to center.

Freshman Casey Lenski hit a hard grounder between third and short that was thrown away, scoring Schuldt. Amy Graham singled moving Lenski to third. Lenski then scored when Sarah Scaccia reached on an error.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play,” Lenski said. “It has been fun playing up on the varsity these last 10 games.”

“I have been taking some extra hitting with my dad after school,” said Schuldt, who had 2 hits. “It has really helped.”

Prospect tallied again in the fourth, again with two outs. Julie Mazur singled and then scored on Cassie Poulos’ double.

“We scored all our runs with two outs, which was monumental.” Adair said. “The kids were putting the ball in play. And good things can happen when you do that.”

The Knights had a chance to blow the game open in the fifth. Prospect loaded the bases with no outs, but Mustangs pitcher Sara Brunlieb got a 1-2-3 double-play and then another comebacker to end the inning.

But Rolling Meadows (17-18) could not take advantage of the momentum as Lythberg allowed just doubles to Lane Winkler and Sam Anderson.

“We have struggled the last three weeks hitting,” Meadows coach Tony Wolanski said. “And we ran into a good pitcher tonight. She did a great job on us and we struggled at the plate.

“We had a great year, despite all the injuries we had. The kids played hard and did well.”