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IC finally gets to Zdroik, St. Edward

IC Catholic Prep managed to turn St. Edward pitcher Lindsay Zdroik's pinpoint control into her own worst enemy on Tuesday.

Zdroik was cruising along with a no-hitter and a 1-0 lead with two outs in the sixth inning before the Knights turned the tables on the sophomore to rally for a 2-1 Suburban Christian Conference Blue Division softball win at the Elgin Sports Complex.

Gabby Curran laced a single to right field on the first pitch to break up the no-hit bid. Up to that point Zdroik had thrown 15 of 17 first pitches for strikes and had walked just one batter.

"I was telling the girls we had to start getting aggressive on the first pitch," IC coach Frank Reaber said. "She was throwing a lot of strikes, so we were going to have to go up there swinging if we wanted to get to her. Once Gabby got on that got us going."

Curran stole second and came home on single up the middle off the bat of Melissa Gonzalez to tie the game at 1-1. After Zdroik hit Jessica Conenna with a pitch, Anjella Farmer ripped a double to the left-center field gap to score Gonzalez with the go ahead run IC (9-6, 3-3).

"We've been in a hitting slump lately, but we never stopped believing in ourselves," Farmer said. "We knew that first pitch was coming in as a strike and we started going up to plate looking to hit it."

The two runs were more than enough for Conenna, who pitched a complete game 4-hitter to pick up the win. Conenna (7-3) struck out 11 batters and walked just 1. The senior twice came up with big pitches to leave Green Wave runners stranded at third base. In the first inning she got Allison Stratman to ground out to third and then in the fifth inning struck out Zdroik and Stratman back-to-back to leave the tying run at third.

"I just bear down a little harder in those situations," Conenna said. "In a tight game like to today every pitch counts, so I had to stay focused. My curve ball is my go-to pitch and it's probably the best I have thrown it all year."

St. Edward (6-5, 2-3), which was coming off a big tournament win over the weekend at the Chicagoland Challenge, struggled at the plate. The Green Wave's only run came in the fourth inning. Zdroik led off with a walk and later scored on an RBI single by Julie Larson.

"We just didn't bring our bats today," St. Edward coach Jaci Corn said. "We were very passive at the plate. It's very disappointing after the way we hit the ball over the weekend. We just can't seem to get off the roller coaster ride this season."

Zdroik went the distance and fell to 5-4. She gave up 4 hits, struck out 11, walked 1, and hit 2 batters.

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