Schaumburg works to keep streak alive at Maine West

With an eye-popping 26-game winning streak on the line, Schaumburg's softball team saw it was time to put it all the line.

Trailing 4-2 going into its last at-bat in the second game of a doubleheader against host Maine West, the Saxons (28-1) produced 3 runs in the top of the seventh to edge the pesky Warriors 5-4 and run their record winning streak by a Mid-Suburban League team to 27 games on Saturday afternoon.

"We had them on the ropes," said first-year Maine West coach Mike McGovern, who won more than 560 games on the Division I level as the head coach at llinois-Chicago. "The got a couple of bloops in that final inning and we gave them a couple of extra outs."

Then it took an all-out diving catch from sophomore center fielder Kaiden Jackson to get the final out in the bottom of the seventh to give junior Paige Alt (18-0) her second win of the day.

Alt did not give up a run in the final three innings of the second game and threw a 2-hitter with a season-high 17 strikeouts in the opener to win 9-0.

Senior Annamarie Weber, celebrating her birthday, and Alyssa Pegoraro had the only hits for West (14-14).

In that game, Elaine Walker closed to within one of the single-season state record for home runs. Her 23rd blast this spring was a 2-run shot over the center field fence which gave Schaumburg a 4-0 lead in the opener. Taylor Odom of Goreville High School hit 24 in 2012.

The Saxons now have 63 homers as a team, 2 behind the state record of 65 set by Benet last spring.

Alt, who is now 18-0, also excelled with her bat in the opener going 2-for-3 with a double.

Walker was 3-for-3 with 4 RBI including a sacrifice fly. She also threw out a runner trying to steal second as shortstop Shannon Felde made a nifty tag for the out.

Other multiple hitters for Schaumburg were Christina Candotti (2-for-2, RBI) and Michaela Encarnacion (2-for-4), who had a 3-run triple in the bottom of the fifth to make it 9-0.

Jordan Hart replaced freshman Allison Eby in the fifth inning and retired six of the final seven batters she faced.

Grace Feldkamp took the mound for Game 2 and turned in a solid performance against one of the top hitting team in the state.

The sophomore right-hander kept the Saxons scoreless through three innings as West built a 4-0 lead.

Warriors junior shortstop Kayla Pociejewski played a key role in getting the Warriors off to their big start.

She handled three tough grounders in the top of the first to record each assist with throws to first baseman Weber.

Pociejewski then gave Feldkamp a 2-0 lead when she belted her ninth homer of the season and 20th in two years, a 2-run blast over the left field fence that also scored Feldkamp, who had reached on an error.

Jamie Travis' 2-run single to center brought home Feldkamp (walk) and Pociejewski (single to to center) with one out in the fourth for the 4-0 lead before Illinois recruit Felde (9 strikeouts) struck out the side for the second straight inning.

The Saxons began their comeback with a run in the fourth on Alt's 2-run double to right which brought home Felde (2-for-4) making it 4-1.

Jackson led off the fifth with a single to center and eventually scored on an error to cut the lead in half.

Feldkamp got two groundouts to third baseman Allison Pearson and one to Pociejewski to shut down the Saxons in the sixth.

That meant the Warriors became one of the few teams to hold a lead on Schaumburg going into the seventh.

But the confident Saxons were up to the challenge.

"I never had a doubt," said Walker, who went 2-for-4 in the second game. "I knew we had big hitters all through lineup and that Paige could get us out in the bottom of the inning."

Walker started the seventh with a bloop single to shallow left center. Sarah Schwind followed with a perfect bunt single. Felde then reached on an outfield error to allow Walker to score and make it 4-3. Schwind got to third on the play and came home on Alt's sacrifice fly which tied the game at 4-4.

Juniors Christina Candotti (3-for-4) and Michelle Birkholz followed with singles before Candotti was able to race home when Roxanne Kakareka reached on infield error to make it 5-4.

Alt then raced up for a short dribbler in front of the plate and fired to first for one out. She struck out the next batter and Jackson's terrific catch while diving to her right to rob Pegoraro of extra bases dramatically ended the game.

"We never looked at it as a game we were going to lose," Alt said. "We knew we had the hitters to come back."

"Paige was great," said Saxons coach Ellen Abreu."We had a lot of really good hits but their shortstop (Pociejewski) played great on a lot of hard grounder we hit at her."

"I think this will help us a lot," Pociejewski said. "To come out and be able to compete like this against a really good team boosts our confidence for the state playoffs coming up."