Softball: Kolb, Stout spark St. Charles East past Batavia

Senior Katie Kolb started the year in the 3-hole for St. Charles East in her fourth year playing varsity softball.

First-year coach Jarod Gutesha has tinkered with the lineup this spring, and the sweet-swinging Kolb now finds herself leading off.

Kolb did her job to perfection Tuesday in an Upstate Eight Conference River Division matchup at Batavia. She walked in the first, doubled in the second, walked in the fourth and singled in the sixth, reaching base all four times as a catalyst in the Saints' 7-3 victory.

"Just doing whatever I can to help the team," Kolb said. "It was a good day offensively I think for the whole team too. Just doing my job to get on base and people move me over and hit me in. That's my main focus. I'm not here to hit home runs. Just get on."

The home run for St. Charles East (21-3, 9-2) came from catcher Rylee Stout, a towering blast over the left-field fence in the fifth. It was the fifth homer for the junior.

Eight of the nine Saints had a hit, helping them fend off a good challenge from Batavia (11-8, 7-4) who rallied from a 4-0 deficit to pull within 5-3 before Delaney Devor plated 2 insurance runs with a single in the sixth.

"We reshuffled a couple things," Gutesha said of his lineup. "As the season moves on you look at production. You look at the stats we have a lot of girls who are hitting the ball well. Top to bottom it's been a pretty good, productive lineup."

Paige Ligocki and Kolb came through with 2-out hits in the second that plated runs, and the Saints scored 2 more runs in the third with 2 outs on Jordan Hieber's double and a wild pitch.

"We got key clutch hitting," Gutesha said.

The Bulldogs scored twice in the fourth on singles by Olivia Bumbar and Ashley McNamara, an RBI grounder from Kaylan Waldron, and a Lauren Wencewicz single.

Bumbar drove in another run in the fifth to pull within 5-3 before winning pitcher Jordan Hall (7 hits, 2 ER, 2 strikeouts, 3 walks) stranded the tying runs at second and third.

"I give our girls credit for coming back and making it a game," Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos said. "We were one hit away from tying that game up."

Sophomore Jaelen Lisberg took the loss despite a strong outing, falling to 5-3. The Bulldogs made a couple tremendous plays behind her from shortstop Rachael Lovestrand and center fielder Toni Galas.

"We're starting to get our girls back we didn't have earlier in the season," Castellanos said. "Rachael made an awesome catch, Toni made a huge play. Defensively we are right there. I feel we have a team that can compete with anybody. It's all up to us to come with the right approach."