St. Charles North fields a sectional semifinal winner

Elk Grove's softball team hit some hard shots at St. Charles North on Tuesday night in the Class 4A semifinal of the Rolling Meadows sectional.

But more often than not the North Stars' defense was up to the challenge - and now they have a shot at a sectional title.

With Jillian Waslawski (12-4) becoming the first freshman pitcher in a program history to earn a sectional win, St. Charles North blanked the Grenadiers, 5-0.

The North Stars (28-5) will face Schaumburg (31-1) for the championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Four of those 'shots' went at sophomore left fielder Jordyn Wolfe, who made all the catches including exceptional efforts on the final two.

In the top of fifth inning, she made a terrific diving grab in foul territory on Brianna Leach, who was one of the toughest outs in the Mid-Suburban League all season.

Then in the seventh, Wolfe came up with a leaping grab of Aleece Duffy's rocket which appeared to be going over the left fielder's head.

Wolfe was also a spark on offense.

She led off the top of the third with a single to center. She stole second and when the throw got away, she alertly popped up and raced to third, where she dove in safely.

Classmate and cleanup hitter Allison Moberg then showed her versatility with the bat, putting down a perfect squeeze bunt on which Wolfe slid safely home.

"Jordan was lights out," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin after a game that happened to be played under the lights with a 7 p.m. first pitch. "She loves to play softball. And you can tell by the way she plays. She's an energizer. I told her that if we gave out a game ball, like we do at our home games, she'd be one of the girls to get one."

"I love to run," Wolfe said. "That's just part of my game."

The North Stars' pitching game was handled smartly by Waslawski, who tossed a 3-hitter against a powerful lineup that slugged a school-record 56 homers this spring.

"She's a great pitcher," Wolfe said of her teammate. "We just try to make the plays behind her."

"Jillian was consistently around the plate," Poulin said. "And she had her team making the plays behind her. "We've had better days at the plate but we were able to manufacture runs."

The first one came in the second inning when seniors Alexandra Millett and Nemetz reached on back-to-back errors. Millett scooted home on junior Samantha Hausl's double to right-center.

Elk Grove sophomore Kylie Thomsen did a nice job escaping further damage with a strikeout and pop out to third baseman Sarah Pauscher to end the inning.

St. Charles North went ahead 3-0 in fourth when Hausl led off with a single to center and came home on senior Kaitlyn Waslawski's two-out triple to right center.

The North Stars' only multi-run inning came in the fifth, when senior Abigail Howlett led off with her seventh homer of the season over the center-field fence.

Hausl later delivered a two-out RBI single to right scoring senior Nemetz for the 5-0 cushion.

Hausl finished as the game's top hitter, going 3-for-3 with 3 RBI.

"Sam had some big hits," Poulin said. "As a team I think we'll do a much better job batting as we move forward. But we got the job done with pitching and defense."

Junior Amanda James also had a hit for the North Stars, who turned a nice double play in the bottom of the sixth when second baseman James caught a line drive and flipped to shortstop Hausl to double up the runner. Leach had an infield hit to lead off the game for the Grens, but Jillian Waslawski then held Elk Grove hitless until the bottom of the sixth, when Pauscher singled to center.

Elk Grove's other hit was a single to center by Shannon Taucher in the seventh.

"They made some plays on well-hit balls," said Hall of Fame Elk Grove coach Ken Grams, who finished his 35th season with a another stellar record (28-10). "Any of those could have helped us back in the game. But softball is a fragile sport. That's the nature of the game.

"And against a good team like that, you can only shut them down so many innings when they are getting multiple baserunners. They didn't seem to have any weak links in their lineup, and that's tough to stop."

Thomsen (13-6) went the first five innings while junior Anna Bonder got the final six outs for Elk Grove.

"We had a great season," Grams said of his MSL East championship club. "Our kids did well and accomplished a lot of things we set out to do. You can't beat that."