Elk Grove puts the pedal down

Elk Grove's softball team has been driving the ball out of the park all season.

Wednesday was no exception, and now the Grenadiers are in the driver's seat in the Mid-Suburban East standings after an 8-6 victory over visiting Buffalo Grove.

Talk about an encore.

After setting the team record for home runs in a single season with 3 against Rolling Meadows, the Grens came back 24 hours later and belted 4 more against the Bison.

The home run parade included senior right fielder Brianna Leach (12th of the season), sophomore second baseman Haley Itzenthaler (first), junior Sarah Pauscher (17th) and senior shortstop Aleece Duffy (first).

Elk Grove now has a school-record 51 homers, breaking the former mark for 45 set last season.

The state record belongs to Benet, which hit 65 a year ago. Barrington has the record for a MSL team with 54 in 2013.

But the Grens (23-7, 9-4) were more concerned about defeating BG (15-7, 7-6) which is the three-time defending East champion.

EG holds a 2-game lead over BG with three to play.

"This is just a great feeling, thinking of all the time we have cried after working so hard over the past years, physically and mentally," said Duffy, who will study at Kentucky next year.

"Seriously, we want to win the East side so bad," Leach said. "This is our biggest rival so it feels great. My adrenaline is still rushing."

After BG went ahead 1-0 on a RBI single by Grace Gran (4-for-4) in the top of the first, Leach didn't take long to fuel her team's adrenaline when she led off the bottom of the first.

The lefty smacked the second pitch she saw over the left field fence.

Itzenthaler (3-for-4) and Pauscher (2-for-4) followed with singles before Marjorie Sloan's sacrifice fly to right drove in Itzenthaler to give EG a 2-1 lead.

BG tied it at 2-2 in the top of the second on a RBI single by Caitlin Catino (2-for-3) scoring Dea Barton (3-for-4).

EG took the lead for good in the bottom of the second when Itzenthaler's line drive sailed over the left field fence with Abbey Sloan and Leach (who had doubled) on base for a 5-2 cushion.

Duffy took her turn at the long ball in the third inning. Her 2-run shot over the right-center field fence followed a one-out bloop single to right by Shannon Taucher (2-for-3) for a 7-2 lead.

BG cut the deficit to 7-4 on a 2-run single by Catino in the fourth before Pauscher's solo blast to left with two outs made it 8-4 in the bottom of the inning.

The game's final runs came in the top of the fifth when Jasmine Avalos' deep two-out double to center drove home Bison pitcher Julia Camardo and Gran, who'd both singled.

Despite the powerful offensive display, Hall of Fame Grens coach Ken Grams was more impressed by his team's performance on the field.

Two highlights were center fielder Marjorie Sloan throwing a runner out at the plate in the first inning to catcher Melissa Picchi and right fielder Leach throwing a runner out at second with Duffy making the tag.

Masnica moved from left field to first base for the final two innings and found herself quite busy, collecting the final 6 putouts, two unassisted.

BG threatened in the seventh with runners on first and second with two outs when Pauscher made a nice play on Avalos's hard ground ball. She threw to Masnica to end the game.

"This was a different kind of game," said Grams, who went with winning pitcher Kylie Thomsen (10-3) for the first 3⅔ innings and finished with Anna Bonder. "But it was a good game and had to be fun to watch.

"Given the home runs and offense, I was impressed with our defense. They had a lot of runners and activity on the bases, and we made the plays."

BG coach Jamie Paul said the Bison will move forward.

"This one stings," she said. "But we will keep our focus and prepare for the regional. Hopefully we gain some momentum and peak at the right time."