Mobile Schaar helps keep Lakes moving forward
Cassidy Schaar earned that nickname.
Every time she walked to the plate during Friday's Class 3A regional final against Grayslake Central, Lakes PA announcer/dean of students Kurt Sooley introduced her as Cassidy "Out To Lunch" Schaar.
"We don't have off-campus lunch, but a lot of times I have physical therapy (arm) where I have to exit school to go out to lunch," said Schaar, a smiling senior. "I think my total was at 196 missed class periods this year. I go out to lunch a lot."
The physical therapy - and those lunches - kept her healthy, apparently. Note Schaar's tiebreaking, RBI single with two out in the fourth, when she just legged out a groundball to shortstop. Her hit capped Lakes' second 3-run inning in a row, as the Eagles went on to capture a come-from-behind, 10-5 win over the Rams.
Lakes (23-12) earned that victory.
The fourth-seeded Eagles scored 10 unanswered runs to earn a berth in Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. sectional seminal at Grayslake Central against the winner of today's game between top-seeded Carmel Catholic and No. 9 St. Viator.
"I've said it all season," said Schaar, who also played errorless ball at third base. "We will never, ever die. Something this team does is we regroup and we pick each other up when we're down."
Lakes fell behind in the top of the third when No. 5 Grayslake Central (16-21) strung together five straight hits and scored five times. Two errors put Emma Eiserman on second base with none out, and Teagan Truskowski delivered an RBI single. Rams pitcher Reagen Radke then doubled, Katie Strickland (2-for-4) smacked a 2-run single, and Juliana Frusolone (2-for-4) executed a perfect squeeze bunt to plate the fourth run of the inning. Frusolone ran all the way to second for a bunt double, and scored on Brandy Heraty's single.
Up 5-0 with sophomore ace Radke throwing, the Rams liked their position.
"I was feeling pretty good," Grayslake Central coach Jason Schaal said. "But I kept saying and kept preaching, 'It's a 0-0 game. We need to keep our foot on the gas. We need to not lose focus.' And we didn't do it."
Winning pitcher Ally Perdue (2-for-4, triple) capped Lakes' 3-run third, as the Eagles were quickly back in the game. Lakes scored all 10 of its runs over the next three innings.
"You got to give credit to Lakes, first of all," Frusolone said. "They're a great hitting team, and they're very energized all the time. But for us, we lost communication. (Lakes) started putting the ball in places that we weren't, and once they started scoring, we started getting a little down."
As it has all season, Lakes got a spark at the top of its order from freshmen Rachel Becker and Molly Dietz. Becker had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Dietz followed with an RBI triple. In the Eagles' 4-run fifth, Becker singled home 2 runs, and Dietz followed by tripling home a pair.
"They've had big bats for us all year," Schaar said. "They've been a big part of this team, and I can't wait to see what they do in the future. I hate leaving them."
Another Lakes freshman, Georgia Ohren, singled, walked and scored twice. Coach Bill Hamill starts Ohren in center field, Becker at shortstop and Dietz at first base. None of them seemed flustered Friday.
"They've play big summer (travel) ball," Hamill said. "So this is not new to them."
Lakes also got a big game offensively from catcher Karlie Rotunno, who went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, helping the Eagles win their second regional championship in a row.
"They played a great game," Frusolone said. "We played great too."