Downers Grove North comes back to beat Montini

Staring at a 5-run deficit in the fifth inning, Downers Grove North did not blink.

The potent Trojans offense just kept swinging away and before long, what was once a 7-2 hole against a solid Montini team turned into an exciting 8-7 nonconference softball win Saturday afternoon.

Downers Grove North (8-2) used a 5-run fifth inning to draw even with the Broncos and then pushed across the winning run with a two-out rally in the sixth.

"We know we're confident this year that our bats can make some noise," Trojans coach Eric Landschoot said. "We've done that (comeback) a few times this year against good teams, and I really think they do believe."

The visitors had to have a little doubt after the Broncos slugged their way to 7 runs, including a 2-run homer by freshman Nicole Cuchran in the first inning and a 3-run blast off the bat of Naomi Alonzo in the third.

But senior pitcher Megan Ramsden settled down and her defense helped out with a pair of double plays. At the same time the Broncos defense made a pair of errors in the Trojans 5-run fifth and Hannah Mrazek took advantage with a bases-loaded double down the left-field line that cleared the bases and tied the score at 7-7.

"It was tough going up there down 5 runs," said Mrazek, who ripped an inside pitch by Lauren Trojnar into the left-field corner. "I had a feeling she was going to throw me inside. She just kept pushing it in and in and in and I just turned on it. I was feeling great."

With the score tied Downers Grove North used small ball to tally the winning run. With two outs Katie Polaski reached on a bunt single - her third infield hit of the day - and after she stole second base she then scored on an error.

Kayelee Newstrom, who started her team's scoring with a 2-run homer in the second, said the Trojans trust their ability to battle back from deficits this season.

"We can always come back at anytime because we do that a lot," said the junior outfielder, who went 2-for-3 with a walk while scoring twice. "We've been down in a number of games and we've come back and won or tied it so were really good with it."

For Montini coach Mike Bukovsky, it was the second time in two days his team suffered a late 1-run defeat. On Friday the 11-3 Broncos lost 2-1 after St. Francis scored in the bottom of the seventh to break a 1-1 tie.

"We had to pick it up a couple innings and we didn't," said Bukovsky, whose team committed 5 errors. "They did a nice job of coming back. We had momentum during the middle part of the game and we made some very poor mental decisions and we kind of let that all slip away and they got back in the game.

"The idea is that we need to get better and we know it. Sometimes it's tough to swallow, but we need to look within ourselves and we need to get better. That's what we focus on."