St. Charles East rallies in 7th to beat Bartlett
The St. Charles East softball team has been thriving this season with the home run ball but on Tuesday at Bartlett the Saints won by stringing together singles then getting a clutch double from sophomore catcher Rylee Stout.
Trailing the host Hawks 4-2 going into the top of the seventh inning of the Upstate Eight crossover, St. Charles East loaded the bases with singles from Madelyn Candre and Katie Kolb and a walk to Alex Latoria.
Sophomore Jordan Hieber then delivered a 2-run single on an 0-2 pitch to tie the game, just before Stout cranked a 1-2 pitch to the base of the fence in left-center field to drive home Latoria and Hieber and give the Saints a 6-4 lead, which they held onto in the bottom of the seventh when junior right-hander Jordan Hall retired the meat of Bartlett's order to preserve the win and run her record for the season to 6-0.
"I was just thinking I have to get this for my team," said Stout of her game-winning hit. "I had to stay on top because I had popped up a couple times before that. I had to put that out of my mind."
Despite the deficit, Saints' coach Kelly Horan said her team didn't panic.
"Nobody was worried," Horan said. "We had runners on all day and these kids are just so businesslike in their approach. They're such competitors. They compete whether it's Ping-Pong or seeing who can eat a slice of pizza the fastest."
SCE (11-1, 4-0) jumped ahead in the top of the first when Kelly Rinker (2-for-4) beat out an infield hit and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Bartlett came back to tie in the bottom of the inning, using a leadoff walk to Katie Fornoff and an RBI double from Elyse Hickey to knot the score at 1-1.
The Hawks (7-4-1, 2-2) touched Hall for 3 runs in the bottom of the third to jump ahead 4-1.
No. 9 hitter Nina Pavell led off the inning by dumping a double just over first base. After Fornoff drew her second walk of the game, Lauren Janczak ripped a double off the fence in left to score both runners and put Bartlett on top 3-1 but Janczak was thrown out trying to get to third on the throw in from the outfield. Hickey singled and after a strikeout freshman Amber Pagan singled. Suzie Miceli's single to left then plated Hickey to give the Hawks a 4-1 lead.
And while the Saints were putting runners on base, Bartlett junior righty Danielle Kirby was able to get out of jams that saw SCE leave 7 runners on base, five of them in scoring position, through six innings.
The Saints did manage a run in the sixth as Hieber led off with a single, went to third on Stout's first double of the game, and then scored on a passed ball to make it 4-2.
Then came the top of the seventh and the winning rally.
"We just tried to keep the energy up," said Stout. "We knew we could do it. We have great hitters."
Horan liked that her team was able to come back from a seventh-inning deficit for the first time this season.
"We're still learning who is going to come through for us and today it was Rylee Stout," Horan said. "She's a calming presence out there. She's always smiling and willing to do whatever she can for the team. And she's been hitting the ball like crazy."
Hall allowed 7 hits on the day but only one after the third inning. She struck out 2, walked 4 and hit a batter. Candre was 2-for-3 for the Saints while Kolb was 2-for-3 and reached base all four times up, including on an error and a walk. Hieber was 3-for-4.
Kirby went the distance for the Hawks, allowing 10 hits with 6 strikeouts, 2 walks and a hit batter. Hickey had 2 hits.
"We gotta finish games," said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith, whose team lost a seventh-inning lead to Geneva last week. "It takes defense, good pitching and good hitting and we didn't have that down the stretch. We played good softball for five innings but it's hard to keep a good team like that down. For the most part our defense was solid and we pitched a good game but I didn't think we swung good bats today."