Hall, St. Charles East quiet Geneva

Jordan Hall put quite the exclamation mark on her day Friday at St. Charles East.

The Saints junior already was on her way to holding a powerful Geneva lineup in check, leading the Vikings 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

Hall then drove an Emily Plocinski offering over the center-field fence, a ball that Geneva center fielder Maddie Keith nearly reached over the fence and caught.

"I could kind of feel it off my bat but I was just kind of hoping it would go over," Hall said.

Hall's 2-run home run capped the Saints' 6-1 win, a victory that keeps St. Charles East (19-4, 11-2) tied for the Upstate Eight Conference River Division lead with St. Charles North. The teams play next Friday at St. Charles North, who won the first meeting 4-3.

"Even before she hit the home run I thought Hall was the best player out here," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "And then to put a home run on top of it, it was a really good day for her."

Geneva (12-6, 8-4) hurt itself early in the game. With Olivia Cheatham on first base after a single in the first inning, the Vikings caught a popup and tried to throw back to first to double off Cheatham. The throw got away and Cheatham raced all the way to third. Jordan Hieber then stroked a soft liner into right field for a run-scoring single and 1-0 lead.

While Hall retired the first 9 Geneva batters, the Saints extended their lead to 3-0 in the third.

Kelly Rinker reached on an infield single, moved to second on Cheatham's bunt and scored on Alex Latoria's single.

Rylee Stout doubled to score Latoria, a ball that dropped in front of Geneva's right and center fielders.

"I felt if we would have been a little better defensively we could have got into the middle innings and the game was still 0-0," Dierks said. "They (his outfielders) just miscommunicated a little. One of them called it a little early. That ball was catchable, we had a chance to make a play."

Geneva scored its only run in the fourth. Sarah Baurer lined an opposite field double, Annika Radabaugh singled and Kaitlyn Plocinski walked to load the bases. Rylie Porretto drove in Baurer with a sacrifice fly.

The Saints also tried to score on a sacrifice fly in the fifth but Porretto threw out Rinker at the plate. They made up for that with a 3-run sixth. In addition to Hall's 2-run homer, Latoria delivered her second run-scoring single.

"I'm really happy with the small stuff," Saints coach Kelly Horan said. "I thought we did a nice job doing the small stuff correctly, working counts, good at-bats, moving the runner over, hitting behind the runner, hitting the cut, those were small plays but if you don't make the small plays you are in a lot of trouble."

The top four hitters in the Saints' lineup - Rinker, Cheatham, Latoria and Hieber - all had 2 hits and combined to go 8-for-12 with 4 runs, 3 RBI and 2 sacrifice bunts, both by Cheatham.

St. Charles East did all that while missing two of its starting outfielders and big bats in its lineup, Katie Kolb (back) and Maddie Candre (concussion), both of whom Horan expects to be back before long.

"I was really pleased with my entire team," Horan said. "By no means does anyone feel good physically. We were without some key players and I think it's telling about my team that they came out and took care of business."

Radabaugh, hitting over .500 this year, did nothing to hurt that average finishing with 2 of Geneva's 3 hits.

But the Vikings came up short in their second test this week after losing at St. Charles North on Wednesday. They scored a combined 3 runs in 14 innings.

"We didn't put a lot of pressure on them defensively," Dierks said. "We have to get a little bit better, we have to put up some runs against pitchers like her and (St. Charles North's Jillian) Waslawski. We have to meet that challenge."

The Saints didn't make any errors, Rinker making 5 plays at shortstop and Latoria 3 at third base.

"When you have a good hitting team it's good to have a good defense back you up and make the plays you needed to. Which we did," said Hall, who mixed her rise ball with an occasional screw ball.

Hall improved to 12-3 with 5 strikeouts while allowing only 1 walk and 3 hits.

"She kept them off-balance, a great mix," Horan said. "I'm proud of my team responding. A lot of teams you lose a player and then another player you can get down in the dumps and they weren't going for it. I'm really pleased about that."