Downers North ends Glenbard South's streak
Glenbard South took to the diamond at Downers Grove North riding an eight-game winning streak, but during the hot stretch the Raiders hadn't faced a pitcher quite like the Trojans' Dale Ryndak.
Saturday in Downers Grove the Trojans' ace snapped Glenbard South's winning streak by striking out 12 in a 9-0 victory, Ryndak's ninth shutout of the year.
The Raiders (9-4) did load the bases twice and managed 7 hits against the hard-throwing Ryndak (10-1) but failed to push across a single run. The Trojans, meanwhile, got the only run they needed in the bottom of the first and then continued to pad the lead while taking advantage of some fielding miscues by the visitors.
"That's a faster pitcher than we've seen. But we put the ball in play," Glenbard South pitcher Taylor Carli said after falling to the Trojans. "That's a better pitcher than we've seen, but we were getting used to it as the game went along and we put the ball in play."
Downers Grove North (11-2) came into the game fresh off a disappointing loss to Oak Park in a game in which they let a late 5-2 lead get away due in part to some sloppy defense. On Saturday they were solid in every facet of the game, starting with the Arizona State-bound Ryndak, who was 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored to go along with her stellar pitching.
"I think today was a great example of what this team is capable of," Trojans coach Eric Landschoot said. "When we needed some big hits we got some big hits. When we needed to play a little small ball we played a little small ball. We put down some sacrifices, and we hit the ball on the right side to move some runners when we needed to."
Not to mention it doesn't hurt to have Ryndak on the mound.
"We get a lead, I'm throwing and we're having a fun time," Ryndak said. "It's much easier to play when you're having a fun time. I said a couple weeks ago, it's just softball. You can't really dwell on it. We came back today. We kind of forgot about our last game and just did our thing."
The Raiders used a walk to Taylor Carli and singles by Ashley Cohen and Gianna Marra to fill the bases with two outs in the second, but Ryndak struck out her third batter of the inning to end the threat and give her 5 strikeouts through two innings.
Glenbard South then loaded the bases with just one out in the seventh as Danielle Scarpiniti lined a single to center and Marra picked up her second infield single of the day before Tricia Weigand was hit by a pitch. But a forceout at the plate and a popup followed and Ryndak had her 10th win of the spring.
"She's a great pitcher and we didn't string hits together," Raiders coach Julie Fonda said. "We didn't adjust our swings. You go up there against a good pitcher like Dale and she's going to take advantage of the holes in the swings. If you don't make adjustments from at-bat to at-bat it's going to turn out how it turned out."