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Elk Grove gets a good grip in homer-heavy victory

Elk Grove and Buffalo Grove's softball teams took to the Grenadiers' diamond on Friday looking to break a first-place tie in the Mid-Suburban East.

The hosts decided to break out their bats.

For the first time in school history, the Grens walloped 4 home runs in one inning en route to a 20-1 five-inning victory over the defending East champs who defeated Elk Grove twice last spring.

The home run parade came in the Grens' 14-run third inning, led off by 3-run blasts by junior Shannon Taucher (left-center) and sophomore Alex Masnica (right-center), followed by a 2-run shot by senior Becca Maher (right-center) and 3-run rocket by senior catcher Gina Cirricione (left-center) with two outs.

Maher finished the game 4-for-4 with 6 RBI, four coming in the big inning.

"That's unbelievable," said Maher of the Grens third -inning explosion in which 19 batters stepped to the plate. "We hit all day in the field house on Thursday so that helped.

"A lot of times when we lose the other team has scored more runs in one inning than we have in the game. So we wanted to stop that."

The Grens did exactly that to improve to 15-3 and 4-2 in the MSL East, one game ahead of the Bison (6-8, 3-3).

Breann Steady and Nikki Longdon pitched for the Bison, who were without all-area junior ace Julia Camardo.

"Julia was hit by a line drive in our last game on Thursday," said BG coach Jamie Paul. "She has a badly bruised eye, swollen cheekbone and jaw but nothing was broken. We feel very lucky for what the situation was. It could have been much worse."

It will be 'day to day' as to when Camardo can return.

"I'm just glad she is OK," Paul said. "She's a good kid and we're all glad she wasn't hurt worse than she was. That's the most important thing."

"A lot of us play with Julia on the summer team so that was a real hard to hear about," Maher said. "You never want to see anyone get hurt. It's a shame she couldn't play. She's such a solid player."

Senior Megan Eul picked up the win improving to 12-2 with a 5-hitter. Three of the hits (freshman Katie Fontanetta, junior Caitlin Catino and junior Dea Barton, who had the RBI) came in the bottom of the fourth when the Bison scored their run.

"Megan did a great job," Maher said. "This was a huge test for us in the MSL East."

Other multiple hitters in the Grens' 16-hit attack were Brianna Leach (2-for-3), Cirricione (2-for-3) and Aleece Duffy (2-for-3). Marjorie Sloan, Allie Peters, Kara Granata and Sarah Pauscher also had hits for the Grens.

"That's highly unusual," said Elk Grove coach Ken Grams about his team's 4 home runs in one inning. "Things just kind of got rolling with the bats."

The 4 home runs give the Grens 20 for the season, including a team-high five for Maher. It was the third for Taucher and Masnica and first for Cirricione.

Senior Michelle Dublin had the only extra base hit for BG with a double in the second inning. Sophomore catcher Emily Carnes also singled for the Bison.

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