St. Charles East clinches UEC River
St. Charles East made official Tuesday what was pretty much decided with a win at St. Charles North last week - the Saints remain the class of the Upstate Eight Conference River Division.
St. Charles East capitalized on 7 Geneva errors to score 3 unearned runs in a 4-2 victory that clinches a share of the conference crown, their second straight.
St. Charles East (26-4, 18-2) can clinch an outright title with a win against either Elgin or Larkin as the Saints close out conference play this week.
Geneva (19-8, 15-6) helped the Saints take a 2-game lead in the race by beating the North Stars last Friday, but the Vikings fell apart defensively against the Saints.
The Vikings made an error on the first play of the game, then another in the second inning. Rachel Fanella pitched around those mistakes, but 2 more errors in the third inning led to a 2-0 Saints lead they held the rest of the way.
"You have to put the ball in play in order to make the defense work and that's the name of the game," Saints coach Kelly Horan said. "They hit the ball too, the biggest difference was our defense was solid today. I really think that was the difference in the game."
Olivia Cheatham started the third-inning rally with a bunt single. She ended up at third on the play when Geneva threw the ball down the right-field line.
Alex Latoria plated Cheatham with a fly ball to deep left that Sarah Baurer gloved with a difficult catch. Jordan Hieber reached on another error and scored on Catherine Crossen's 2-out line single to center.
After playing error-free softball in 4 of their last 5 games, the Vikings struggled mightily, all 7 errors in the infield.
"We've been trending in the right direction but we did not get it done in the infield today," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "You can't gift them 3 of their 4 runs."
The Saints scored their lone earned run in the fourth. Kelly Rinker singled, took second on Cheatham's ground out, stole third and scored on Hieber's single to center.
Hieber, the Saints' cleanup hitter, did nothing to hurt her sizzling .470 average, going 2-for-4.
"It's a little stressful but I wouldn't want to bat anywhere else," Hieber said of hitting fourth. "It's somewhere I like to hit. A lot of times when there's runners on base and no outs I think hit it to the right side because these runners need to move. With two outs all I'm thinking is you need to get a hit and you need to score these runners."
Geneva, who left the bases loaded in the first and runners at first and second with no outs in the third, got within 3-2 in the fifth on singles from Anna Geary and Baurer, Annika Radabaugh's RBI single and a run-scoring fielder's choice by Kaitlyn Plocinski against Saints starter Jordan Hall.
Dierks turned to Emily Plocinski in relief of Fanella in the sixth, but the Vikings made 2 more errors after Maddie Candre's bunt single that set up Latoria for a run-scoring ground out.
"They both did a nice job and Hall pitched well,' Dierks said of Fanella and Plocinski. "We had plenty of chances."
The top three hitters in Geneva's lineup - Geary, Baurer and Radabaugh - all had 2 hits, but that was it. Geary, 6 for 7 in a doubleheader Monday, is now 8 for her last 10.
Hieber's 2 hits led the Saints.
"Good, solid win," Horan said. "We were having a tough time adjusting to the slow pitcher and so we went to the small game."