Huge comeback puts Barrington in Fling finale

One of the all-time great comeback wins in Barrington softball history resulted in the program's 999th win on Wednesday at the Field of Dreams.

"Talk about gut-check time," said Barrington coach Perry Peterson.

The 24-year veteran Fillies coach was referring to when his team was down 7-4 with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the seventh inning.

That's when Carly Kordich's single to left center ignited a 4-run rally that gave the Fillies a dramatic 8-7 victory over Zion-Benton in the semifinals of the Barrington Spring Fling.

The Fillies (2-0) advanced to the championship of their own eight-team event for the ninth straight time and will be trying to win an eighth crown when they face Warren (2-0) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Barrington lost to Warren in the same game a year ago and also fell to the Blue Devils in the 2014 Barrington supersectional.

Trailing 4-3 going into the top of the seventh, Zion-Benton took advantage of three straight errors to score 4 runs. The big hit was a 3-run homer by Sam Cunningham that made it 7-4.

But the Fillies then staged their relentless rally.

Rachel Macdonald (2-for-3, home run, double, 3 RBI) followed Kordich's single with a 2-run homer over the left-center field fence to make it 7-6.

Rachel Krzysko (2-for-4) kept things alive with a triple to right and Zion changed pitchers.

The first pitch to Jenna Fingerman (2-for-4) was wild and Krzysko raced home to tie the game at 7-7.

Fingerman then smacked a double off the right-center field wall and came home on Jamie Browns's bloop single to left field to end the game.

Sophomore Caroline Hoppe pitched the first two innings for Barrington before her classmate Catherine McMahon (2-0) went the final five, striking out six and walking one for the win.

Liz Sweeney also went 2-for-4 for the Fillies, whose next win will be the 1,000th in school history (347 losses).

All the wins have been under hall of fame coaches Pam Devins and Peterson.

"Pam was so instrumental in all of this," Peterson said. "She is the one who really got it going (1969). She made softball important at Barrington. I have been able to keep working off her expertise."

Glenbrook North 9, Maine West 6: Senior Kayla Pociejewski (4-for-4) had a triple while Monica Liwag and pitcher Jordan Hart (2-for-3, double, triple) each had 2 hits for the Warriors (1-1), who will face Lake Zurich today in the final day of the Spring Fling.

Teammates Allison Pearson (double), Maren Garnett, Gabriella Demma, Nicole Byerly and Nora Mcdonald each had 1 hit.

"We got off to a rocky start, but managed to come back and fight for some runs for most of the game," said Warriors assistant coach Amanda Forssander, a former Prospect and Harper College softball player.

Warriors coach Mike McGovern called on sophomore Allison Eby to take the mound in the second inning.

"She (Eby) stepped up for us again." Forssander said. "Nicole Byerly did a great job behind the plate. When you're working with multiple pitchers in a game, you have to be flexible, and she managed to work well with both of them."

Forssander said the Warriors were more aggressive offensively than Tuesday's loss to Zion-Benton.

"We are still learning, and with each game we are improving as a whole," she added. "Jordan Hart was aggressive at the plate."

Hart's double in the fifth inning started a big 4-run rally.

"As soon as she got her first base hit, it gave us the push we needed to work harder and stay aggressive at the plate," Forssander said."We were able to get some runs out of that rally, and I'm proud of the team for that. Hopefully we can stay strong (Thursday), keep our bats awake and keep the positive momentum going."

Warren 16, Hersey 6 (6 inn): Hersey is now 1-1 in the Spring Fling and will meet Zion-Benton (1-1) for third place today.

Rolling Meadows 7, Taft 6: Freshman Caroline Slowik's bases-loaded single to left with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning capped a 3-run rally by Mustangs who won their season opener at Meles Park in Mt. Prospect.

Slowik was one of three freshmen to contribute in Meadows' win. Rookie Sara Benner went 2-for-4 with a key RBI double in the seventh while ninth-grader Ellen Schmidt was 1-for-2 with a stolen base.

"All the freshmen did a nice job," said Mustangs coach Tony Wolanski, whose club is scheduled to host Highland Park on Thursday. "Lydia (Schultz) pitched pretty well. She did not give up many earned runs."

Schultz struck out nine and walked one while going all 7 innings.

Other top hitters for the Mustangs were Paige Conner (2-for-4), Elizabeth Elkins (2-for-3, RBI), Megan King (1-for-3, RBI) and Mallory King (1-for-4, RBI double).

Benner had 2 doubles in the game.

Elizabeth Elkins and her sister Amanda each had walks before Slowik's game-winning hit.