Cary-Grove thumps Dundee-Crown
Sarah Purpura likes hitting cleanup, apparently. Cary-Grove's softball team might just want to keep her there for awhile.
Batting fourth for the first time, the senior outfielder delivered 5 hits, including 2 home runs and a double. She scored 5 times and drove in 5 runs for a 5 5 5 5 box-score line.
Purpura and her Trojan teammates pounded out 23 hits in 5 innings to defeat Dundee-Crown, 20-4, in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup in Carpentersville Thursday, knocking the Chargers from sole possession of first place in the division and snapping D-C's 5-game winning streak.
The 4, 5, and 6 hitters in the Trojans' lineup - Purpura, Grace Pilz, and Rachel Langner - made just one out between them, reaching base 14 of 15 times. The only out came when Langner flied to right for Cary-Grove's final out of the game. Pilz and Langner each had a triple, and the pair combined for 5 runs and 5 RBI.
Leadoff hitter Molly MacDuff and 9th-place hitter Kristi Isola each had 3 hits for the Trojans.
"We came out ready with our offense," said Purpura. "We just worked hard."
In the midst of all those offensive numbers, Trojans' coach Tammy Olson didn't want to forget Cary's errorless defense.
"The outs that we were challenging, we got today, and when you do that things come a lot easier," she said.
Cary-Grove (6-8, 2-2) jumped ahead 7-0 after 2 innings. Back-to-back triples by Pilz and Langner keyed a 5-run second inning for the Trojans.
The Chargers (9-4, 3-1) got back in it in the third. After they loaded the bases with 2 outs, Megan Emerson cleared them with a double. Emerson accounted for the Chargers' final run with a fifth-inning homer to right field.
Isabel Rodriguez had 2 doubles among her 3 hits, but the Chargers could muster only 7 hits against Cary-Grove pitcher Amanda DeGroote.
"The wheels fell off," said Chargers' coach Tracy Beatty. "They didn't come back on."
Cary-Grove added 5 more runs in the fourth, then broke the game wide open with an 8-run eighth. Purpura started the big inning with a double and ended it with a 2-run shot to right.
In between, the Trojans came up with 5 straight singles. Langner, Colleen Kaveney and Alyssa Gurgone had consecutive RBI hits, and Isola's hit scored 2.