This time, fortune favors Hoffman Estates
Talk about a twist of fate.
On Monday morning, Tracy Osimowicz and her Hoffman Estates softball team watched Lake Zurich score 5 runs in the top of the seventh inning to edge the Hawks 7-6 on artificial turf at the Rosemont Dome.
So what happens two days later on artificial turf outdoors?
It was the Hawks coming up with 5 runs in the top of the seventh for 10-8 victory over St. Viator in the nonconference game at Heritage Park in Wheeling.
"We kept our spirits up and kept believing," said Osimowicz, a junior right-hander who raised her record to 2-1 as the Hawks climbed to 3-1. "It was kind of fun this time being the team to come back."
Visiting Hoffman trailed 8-5 going into its seventh-inning at-bat.
The first nine Hawks reached base - five with base hits, two on errors and two on fielder's choice.
Junior Jordyn Fera started the rally with a single to left followed by Caitlin Farina's infield hit. Fera came home on Osimowicz' RBI single to right.
Freshman Giselle Velazquez followed with a single to left and Veronica Cardella reached on an error bringing home another run. Valerie Olsen belted a 2-run single to center and another run came home when Brynn Connelly reached on an error.
"We said we were going to learn from that last game and not let that happen again," said Hawks coach Lindsey Hamma. "We got the opportunity here and did it. It was a big win. We didn't let the weather (temperatures in the 40s) affect us.
" And the bottom half of the order (Velasquez, Cardella, Olsen and Alexis Hurtado) really came through. They gave us the jump start we needed."
Farina (2-for-2, 2 walks) and Velazquez (2-for-4, triple) had multiple hits for the Hawks while Mary Bean, Connelly, Fera, Osimowicz, Cardella (triple) and Olsen each had one.
Cardella, playing left field, also had a nifty spinning back-handed catch in the fifth inning.
The Lions enjoyed their best offensive production in the bottom of the fourth when they pushed across 4 runs to grab a 7-4 cushion.
The big inning started with Grace Kaiser's double to right before Catherine Hafner reached on an infield error. Sophomores Adeline Swiderski and Aryana Ziakas followed with RBI singles.
Lions pitcher Krystal Harris had an infield hit later in the inning as Viator added 2 more runs when junior Olivia Michalik reached on an error and sophomore Jenna Breslin (2 RBI) on a fielder's choice.
Harris ended up 3-fro-4 while Ziakas was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. Cam Vanvalkenburg (double), Breslin, Kaiser and Swiderski each had 1 hit for coach John Scotillo's Lions (0-2), who have played both their games at Heritage Park.
The Wheeling Park District fields are where Hamma began her playing career from the age of 9 to 12 in boys Little League before she began travel and high school softball at Buffalo Grove where she was an all-area shortstop.
"These fields are nice," Hamma said of the new baseball and softball diamonds that opened for play last year.
Hamma's first win as a coach on the Heritage Park diamond was finalized when the Hawks got the final three outs in the bottom of the seventh.
After Osimowicz recorded her third strikeout, Kaiser singled to center.
But Osimowicz got the next two batter on grounders back to the mound. The final one was a hard shot right at her.
"I just tried to get as much of my body in front of it as I could," she said of the clutch play which ended the game. "It was really great to show we could come back from the adversity of our last loss."
"I thought Tracy had full control of all her pitches and that was a tough thing to do on a day like this," Hamma said. "I'm really proud of how the girls came back in this game. We needed this after our last one."