Fremd hangs on against Mundelein
Fans who showed up in Palatine on Wednesday afternoon to see one of the hottest hitting softball teams in the area also got to see one of the most entertaining games of the young season.
The host Fremd Vikings, who came into the game with 65 runs in 20 innings, led 9-4 going into the final inning and narrowly held off Mundelein for the victory.
With two outs and runners on first and third, Fremd relief pitcher Leah Barrett got the final batter on a groundout to sophomore second baseman Becca Uhrich to give Fremd a thrilling 9-8 win.
The Vikings, who committed 3 errors in the Mustangs' 4-run seventh, remained unbeaten at 5-0 while Mundelein slipped to 4-2.
"If you make 3 errors in the last inning, theoretically you should get beat," said Fremd coach Jim Weaver. "We sure made it way more difficult than it should have been."
Mundelein coach Brett Wilhelm looked at his team's defensive first inning in the same fashion.
"If we don't make errors early, it might be a different game," he said, referring to Fremd's 4-run first inning which included 2 errors and 3 hits by the Vikes. "The message we sent to our players is that we've got to be ready to play right off the bus."
Juniors Abby Iuorio and Alyssa Garcia each stole second base in the inning and scored a run.
In her first at-bat, senior Julie Josten made it all the way home on an outfield error and sophomore shortstop Reagan Schneider scored the fourth run after she had doubled to left center and came home on an error.
"At least we kept our wining streak going but we would have liked it not to have been this close," Iuorio said. "We will work on our defense for our next game."
"It will be a long practice (Thursday) but we need it," Garcia said. "We are still in spring break mode. We've got the talent. . Now we've just go to relax and clean up the defense."
Mundelein got to within 4-3 in the top of the fourth.
Meghan Ehemann had a double off the left field wall and an infield hit by Jordyn West brought in a pair of runs.
Fremd added 3 runs in the top of the fifth when Becca Uhrich led off with a single to center.
Holly Straup's RBI groundout brought in the first run. Schneider followed with a double over the left fielder's head and then came home on Nikki Kehoe's single to center for a 7-3 lead.
Mundelein's Amanda Diaz homered over the right center field to cut it to 7-4 in the top of the sixth before Fremd answered with 2 in the bottom of the inning, thanks to Josten's 2-run single to right.
Kehoe (2-0) notched the win with the help from Barrett (1-0), who got the final three outs in the seventh.
The Mustangs took advantage of 3 walks, 3 errors and a base hit by catcher Maggie Mahar (2-for-4) to get to within 9-8.
The Mustangs had the bases loaded with one out and were down by 1 run when Barrett got the final two outs on a fielder's choice and the groundout to Uhrich.
"That's a really good softball team," Wilhelm said of Fremd. "It's well-coached and I love playing here. You know you are going to be in a game.
"To see the fight from our girls makes it exciting to see what this season can bring. A couple of years ago, we'd get down in a game like this and never recover. So that's a positive - that we didn't fall down and kept fighting."
Maddie Zazas and Karlee Busscher also had hits for Mundelein, which will be without senior first baseman Jamie Hemmer for at least three to four weeks with a broken finger.
Fremd reached double digits in hits for the fifth straight game as Uhrich, Garcia, Schneider and Kehoe each 2 hits apiece
"We have to be mentally tougher on defense," Weaver said. "Offensively, we swung at some pitches we should not have. We were just up there swinging instead of having a plan. We'll address these things and move on."