Plocinski, Geneva shut out South Elgin

Showing up at the diamond to see the wind howling out is the last thing any pitcher would want, though you couldn't tell from watching Geneva's Emily Plocinski deal against South Elgin Tuesday in Geneva.

Plocinski threw a 1-hit shutout at South Elgin, mixing up her fastball and change while locating with pinpoint control. Her offense supported her with a 6-run second inning on the way to a 10-0 victory in 4 1/2 innings.

"I knew I had to spot my ball really well so I didn't get a lot of crazy in-the-air hits," Plocinski said. "I was hitting almost all my spots and my changeup was working really well today. It's really a relief to the pitcher to have that cushion."

Geneva (8-4, 4-2) gave Plocinski a 1-0 lead with three straight singles by Sarah Baurer, Annika Radabaugh and Kaitlyn Plocinski in the first inning.

Putting runs on the board early has been a problem so far this season for the Vikings. They solved that in a big way in the second inning, capitalizing on a close call at first base on Radabaugh's grounder to short that would have been the third out of the inning with only 1 run in.

"That fueled the whole thing," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "We got most of our runs after that. That was good hustle by Annika. That was a pretty routine grounder to short. She always runs hard."

Maddie Keith blasted a home run over the center field fence to give Geneva a 2-0 lead. Kate Geary reached on an error and Baurer singled before Radabaugh reached to load the bases.

Geneva scored 5 runs after what could have been the third out, the first on a wild pitch, the next two on Rylie Porretto's single to left and the final two on Kyla Chenier's single to right and a Storm throwing error.

"We set a theme for the week that we want to start imposing ourselves on the other team," Dierks said. "Get off to a fast start and make the other team adjust to us. We've been hanging around in games a lot. We needed that (6-run inning). It was good for us."

South Elgin (6-10, 4-4) got its only hit in the fourth, a 2-out single to right by Stacy Bellack.

Geneva scored three more times in the fourth. Baurer, who scored all three times she batted, walked and came home on Kaitlyn Plocinski's double. Porretto's triple made it 9-0 before Chenier drove in the 10th run with a ground out to second.

"They came to hit," South Elgin coach Stephanie Katzenberger said. "Those guys were clubbing the ball. That is what I hope to see from my team here."

Emily Plocinski finished with 3 strikeouts, 1 walk and 1 single in her 5 scoreless innings.

"She was sharp," Dierks said. "Regardless of the result she threw a decent number of first-pitch strikes, hit her spots and changed speeds. This is definitely a hitter's day. This was one of her better games."

Baurer, Radabaugh, Kaitlyn Plocinski and Porretto all had 2 hits for a Geneva team that started and finished the game strong - unlike its previous three games when the Vikings allowed 12 runs in the opponent's final at-bat.

"In all games we've had opportunities to get runs on the board," Dierks said. "Some of our execution hasn't been as sharp as it needs to be. We want to get it fixed this week because next week we have Batavia, St. Charles East and St. Charles North right in a row. If we have a bad week next week we need to reset some goals. We're trying to use this week to get some confidence and get healthy."