Oak Park's 10-run 6th sinks St. Charles North
After a 2 and a half-hour rain delay at the outset St. Charles North's softball team ran into a late inning buzzsaw Monday night.
Held scoreless through the first three innings Oak Park-River Forest unleashed a lethal offensive barrage over the next three innings on the way to a 14-7 victory over the North Stars at the Class 4A supersectional in Rosemont.
Led by junior designated player Emily Richardson's 5 RBI, the Huskies exploded for 14 runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
"They hit the ball hard all day," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "They are a very good hitting team."
Looking for its second downstate appearance in five years the North Stars (29-6) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Abby Howlett's RBI single.
Oak Park (32-3) scored 3 runs in the fourth taking its first lead of the contest on Richardson's 2-run double to deep center. Two batters later Samantha Linde lashed a run-scoring double as the Huskies took a 3-1 advantage.
After Oak Park extended the margin to 4-1 on Nina Steele's RBI single, St. Charles North answered with a 3-run bottom of the fifth.
Three successive RBI singles from Alex Millett, Erin Nemetz and Sam Hausl helped the North Stars tie the game at 4-4.
The game didn't stay tied for long however. Oak Park retaliated with its fateful 10-run sixth in which it sent 14 batters to the plate.
During one stretch nine straight batters reached base. The Huskies had 8 hits in the frame highlighted by a 2-run double by Ellie Ziegler and Richardson's 3-run double off the base of the center field fence.
Linde (4-for-5) added an RBI single and Ziegler had a run-scoring triple to finish the inning.
St. Charles North attempted to rally scoring 3 runs in the sixth with help from 2 Oak Park errors. Howlett and Allie Moberg each added singles in the inning off Huskies sophomore pitcher Chardonnay Harris.
"We came back and showed that never-say-die attitude," Poulin said. "The girls did their best but that team was better than us tonight."
Freshman Jillian Waslawski worked the first 5 1/3 innings for the North Stars before being relieved by sophomore Maddie Webb. Waslawski later returned to record the final out in the sixth inning.
Early in the game St. Charles North squandered a pair of scoring opportunities. In the first the North Stars loaded the bases before Millett lined into an inning-ending double play.
The next inning Nemetz reached on a walk, Allison Hausl singled and Amanda James was hit by a pitch as the North Stars loaded the bases again with 1 out. However they were turned aside as Kaitlyn Waslawski's low line drive was snagged by shortstop Taylor Arends for another inning ending double play.
"I thought if we came through early in the game with the bases loaded those two times it's a completely different ballgame," Poulin said.
Howlett, who reached base 3 times, had 2 of the North Stars' 8 hits.
"What a season," Poulin said. "I'm not sure anyone predicted that this group would get this far. We told them at the beginning of the season if you want to do anything you want to overachieve, and I believe we overachieved this season. I'm as proud as I've ever been of any team I've coached."