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Softball: St. Francis sweeps doubleheader

The St. Francis softball team had the perfect recipe for a Saturday doubleheader on its home field.

Take plenty of hitting, some quality pitching, some beautiful weather and a cookout between games and it turns into a 15-5, 12-3 sweep of St. Bede Academy of Peru, Illinois.

The Spartans (8-1) collected 33 hits on the day, including 17 in Game 1. Every Spartan who played got at least one hit, most had multiple hits.

The home runs came early in the opening contest. The Bruins (3-8) got to work quickly in their half of the first when leadoff hitter Gabbie Morrow deposited a 1-2 pitch into right field for a triple. The next batter, Maggie Sons, took her second pitch over the fence to give St. Bede a 2-0 lead.

Then came the St. Francis hitters in the second. When it was all over, the Spartans racked up 6 runs on 6 hits to take a 6-2 advantage. The big blast was courtesy of winning pitcher Shelby Winkelman, who took the count to 2-0 before crushing a grand slam. She went 4-for-4 in Game 1 and finished with 6 hits overall.

"I'm just trying to get the ball in play, get it on the right side and try to get runs in," she said.

Winkelman allowed just 5 hits and struck out 10.

Other big hits in the 6-run St. Francis second were RBI singles from Josie Smith and Fiona Summers. There was no letup by the Spartans in the third with 4 runs on 4 hits. Winkelman connected on a 2-run single and Smith knocked in a run with another bunt hit.

St. Bede scored once in the fourth and twice in the fifth before the Spartans scored five runs in their of the fifth to end the game. Rebecca Imbrogno cleared the bases for two runs with a triple to right with a sacrifice bunt by Summers and RBI singles from Carlee Clark and Smith accounting for the other runs.

"We got big hits in the first game, but we got three bunts to prolong innings. Without them we score 5 runs instead of 15," said St. Francis coach Ralph Remus.

The Spartans led 9-2 after three innings of the nightcap. A 2-run single by Winkelman and a 2-run ground-rule double by Clark in the second were the big hits.

RBI doubles from Bailey Zydek and Caroline Caesar scored two runs in the sixth for St. Francis.

The winning pitcher was Zydek. She went the distance, allowing just one earned run, four hits and striking out 12.

"It takes so much stress off, especially when I'm pitching to have that big lead," Zydek said.

Zydek and Winkelman said working with catcher Summers was a big reason for their success and during the season.

Overall, Remus was pleased with the day but said St. Francis still has work to do.

"I knew our pitching was good going into the season. I thought our offense was a little behind and that defense would be a strong point. The reverse happened. We need to work on defense," he said.

The Spartans start a stretch of five straight road games Monday at Timothy Christian in Elmhurst.

"We'll feed off the energy from today and bring it to the games next week," Winkelman said.

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