Schaumburg's big inning sinks Willowbrook

Schaumburg's history-making season marched forward on Monday as the Saxons added another rare piece of hardware to their program history.

For only a third time in program history, and for the first time since 1990, the girls from Schaumburg won a softball regional championship.

The Saxons also reached 30 wins for the first time in school history while playing for the final time this season on their home field.

Junior Paige Alt ran her record to a sparkling 20-0 by tossing a 6-hitter with 5 strikeouts as top-seeded Schaumburg won its own Class 4A regional with an 8-4 victory over Willowbrook, the No. 8 seed.

The top-seeded Saxons (30-1), winners of 29 in a row, will face No. 5 Conant (23-7) for the third time this season in Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. semifinal of the Rolling Meadows sectional.

"I don't think we played our best game, defensively or hitting," said Saxons' shortstop Shannon Felde, who had the game-winning RBI in the third inning when Schaumburg scored all eight of its runs.

"But we hadn't played a game for a while so it's a little understandable. We know we better come out hitting (Tuesday). It's tough to beat a team three times (Schaumburg won 6-4 and 7-0 in first two meetings against Conant)."

The game was scoreless when Kaiden Jackson ignited the Saxons' big inning with a one-out single to right. The sophomore center fielder was the only multiple hitter for Schaumburg as she went 3-for-3 with a single to all three outfield positions.

"I'm just trying to take make contact, just trying to hit the ball solid," said the Saxons' No. 9 hitter. "Oh my gosh, that inning (third) was crazy. The hitting just became contagious."

"Kaiden had an awesome day," said Saxons coach Ellen Abreu. "She was making good contact."

Senior catcher Elaine Walker followed Jackson by reaching on an infield error and Sarah Schwind walked to load the bases.

That's when Felde delivered her 2-run single down the left field line for the 2-0 lead.

"I've been struggling a little so it was nice to come around for the team," said Felde, who will play at Illinois State next year. "No we must just get ready to move on our next game."

The next batter after Felde was Alt, who drew a walk to load the bases again.

A bloop single to center by Christina Candotti made it 3-0. Natalie Napier, making her first start at third base in two weeks (ankle injury), followed with a RBI single to left and Michelle Birkholz drew a bases-loaded walk to increase the lead to 5-0.

The next 3 runs came in when Roxanne Kakareka's fielder's choice, Jackson's single for her second hit of the inning and Schwind's bases-loaded walk.

"We were just being patient an getting runners on base that inning," Abreu said. "Shannon's single down the left field line really opened things up for us. Even our outs were hard-hit balls."

Willowbrook (24-11) threatened with two base runners in the first inning but Alt got the final out on a strikeout and retired seven in a row until senior Alyssa Ressinger (2-for-4) led off the top of the fourth with a double to right center.

But Alt got a strikeout and later a double play to end the inning when Birkholz fielded a grounder at second, tagged the runner headed to second and threw to Candotti at first.

Willowbrook got on the board with 2 run in the top of the fifth.

Junior Jordan Marczewski singled and scored on a wild pitch while senior shortstop Samantha Schmidt (2-for-3, 3 RBI) had a two-out RBI single to score junior pitcher Zoe Dannenberg (walk).

Schmidt, a Northern Illinois recruit, also accounted for the Warriors' final 2 runs in the top of the seventh. She belted her 14th homer of the season, a 2-run blast over the center field fence with two outs.

Senior Courtney Ruchala had led off the inning with a single. Senior Alexandra Kassal later reached on a fielder's choice and came home on Schmidt's 44th career homer in her final at-bat of a stellar four-year career.

"It just kind of happened that way," she said of hitting a homer in her final high school at-bat. "I was just up there trying to keep us alive as long as we could."

"We just had that one bad inning. No one is upset. We are really proud of what we've done the past four years."

Alt got the final out on a grounder to Felde, who was part of all 3 outs in the inning (2 putouts and 1 assist).

"We've learned a couple time this season that if you give good-hitting teams extra outs, they make you pay for it," said Willowbrook coach Rachel Karos. "Unfortunately, that's what happened here in the one inning and we couldn't recover.

"We knew they (Schaumburg) were tough. The story of our season has been fighting to the end. A lot of teams would have rolled over after that (8-run inning). We played clean before that inning and after it. But we had the bad one and paid for it.

"We had chances with base runners but didn't get all of them around. I'm not too unhappy. We did some good things, too."