Lake Park comeback falls short against York

Tessa Kroll couldn’t believe the pickle she found herself in.

Sailing through five innings with a 7-run lead, York’s senior pitcher suddenly was a Lake Park hit from losing it all, the bases loaded in a two-run game. Worse, four Kroll walks had contributed to the trouble.

“That’s like a pitcher’s worst nightmare,” Kroll said.

Kroll escaped further damage in the dicey sixth inning and breezed through the seventh, as No. 13 seed York knocked off No. 4 Lake Park 7-5 in Tuesday action at the Class 4A Hinsdale South regional.

York (17-18) advances to play the Hinsdale South-Willowbrook winner in Saturday’s regional final.

Playoff upsets are nothing new to Kroll and the Dukes. Two years ago York stunned No. 1 seed St. Charles North, then Wheaton North to win a regional title.

“I think that’s what York softball is all about,” said Kroll, who recently committed to Columbia University in New York. “We’re not your stereotypical stud team, but we definitely surprise people in the playoffs.”

Kroll (9-8) had allowed just two baserunners through five innings, and a single by Mariah Harper leading off the Lake Park sixth seemed like a small blip on the radar. Then the next seven Lake Park batters reached, Marilyn Perry’s single scoring Shannon Fritsche to make it 7-5 with none out and the bases still loaded.

But the next batter hit a liner to second, the runner doubled off first. Kroll walked the next batter, but she got Lancers leadoff hitter Kelly O’Neill to fly out to put out the fire.

Kroll conceded that she lost her cool, not getting a few close calls on the four walks.

“You can’t really control the umpire,” said Kroll, who struck out three on the day. “He started moving the strike zone around on me a little bit and that got me flustered. I told myself in the dugout that I could not let this happen again. I could not stomach the thought that I could single-handedly ruin this for our whole team.”

It didn’t surprise Lancers coach Tom Mazzie a bit that his team went down fighting. Lake Park (20-16) hadn’t been shut out all year.

“I’ve preached all year long that you got seven innings offensively,” Mazzie said. “I had absolute faith that we would get to their pitcher at some point.”

Pitching and defense, though, did in the Lancers again Tuesday.

York led 1-0 through two innings, despite stranding five runners — and then broke the game open in the third.

With the bases loaded and one out, Rachel Gentile hit a slow roller to second that courtesy runner Nicole Byerley beat the throw home on. Kayla Madigan then hit a one-hopper to third, but the throw home was wide and caromed off the catcher’s glove, allowing two runs to score.

“To be honest with you that’s the difference in the game,” Mazzie said. “All year pitching and defense has been our Achilles’ heel. If it didn’t bite us today, it probably would have at some point going forward.”

Ellen Barry put the cherry on the inning for York, doubling in a pair of runs for a 5-0 lead. Barry was at it again in the fifth, singling in Madigan to make it 7-0.

“I was really happy with the way the girls swung the bats today,” York coach Drew McGuire said. “We executed some plays, got some bunts down, did some stealing. Barry came up huge for us, and we put some pressure on them.”

Fritsche, Logan Cahill and Harper all singled and reached base twice for Lake Park.