St. Charles East rebounds at Batavia
Sometimes playing another game 24 hours after suffering a disappointing loss to your cross-town rival can be a good thing.
Still stinging from a 5-1 loss to longtime nemesis St. Charles North, St. Charles East's softball team took out its frustration on Upstate Eight Conference River Division foe Batavia (6-11, 4-7) Wednesday afternoon.
The Saints (19-5, 8-2) sent 19 batters to the plate in the first 2 innings and scored 11 runs on 8 hits with 6 stolen bases during their 13-0, 5-inning triumph over the Bulldogs in Batavia.
"It was a pretty good game for the Saints," said St. Charles East coach Kelly Horan in an understatement of sorts.
Tess Hupe (1-for-3, 3 stolen bases, 2 runs scored) reached on an error to start the game, stole second and scored on Olivia Cheatham's infield single to make it 1-0.
Another infield error allowed the Saints' second run of the inning to score before sophomore Katie Kolb (2-for-4, stolen base) lashed a 2-run double to left-center. When the Bulldogs were unable field a popup off the bat of freshman Jordan Hieber (3-for-4, double, RBI), Kolb raced home to extend the Saints' lead to 5-0.
"Today was a new day, a new game," said Kolb. "That (the loss to St. Charles North) wasn't going to stop us. Yesterday was a tough game. It's always good competition against St. Charles North. They're a great team but I think we're a great team, too. Today was a good bounce-back for the team."
The Saints batted around again during a 6-run second that included a 2-run single by Kate Peterburs and 2-run, opposite-field double from senior winning pitcher Haley Beno (10-4).
"I thought right from the beginning we had a very businesslike attitude," Horan said. "Everybody executed well today. We had two fake-bunt steals where our hitter in the box was in perfect position to make it that much more challenging. It just got us going."
St. Charles East unleashed its running game, stealing 7 bases in the first 3 innings.
"We had to energize ourselves," said Horan.
Recent varsity addition Jordan Hall allowed just 1 infield single over the final 3 innings in relief of Beno, who earned some well-deserved rest after the Saints built an early double-digit lead. She also added a fifth-inning single.
"We're not deep," said Horan. "We've got 13 kids - 12 healthy.
"She's building some confidence in her teammates and with us," Horan said of the sophomore Hall. "I'm excited for her."
Junior Ryanne Rokos had an infield hit and later nailed a runner at the plate with an excellent throw from center field for the Bulldogs.
"On your home field, you've got to come out ready to play," said Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos of his team's 3 first-inning defensive miscues. "When they're a good team like that, you can't give them those extra outs because they hit the ball hard 1 through 9. They have a good lineup.
"When your defense struggles and they hit the ball hard in between that, they're going to put up runs," added Castellanos. "We've got to be a little bit more focused and little bit more ready to play at the start."