Softball: Burchfield's blast key for Conant

When sophomore Jackie Burchfield stepped in the batter's box in the top of the seventh, she had not reached base in 3 at-bats.

But in her fourth one she touched all the bases, producing one of the biggest hits all season for Conant's softball team.

Burchfield's 2-run blast over the left field fence was the first home run of her varsity career and proved to be the game-winning RBI in a 6-3 victory over Barrington at its Fields of Dreams.

With the Cougars' perfect Mid-Suburban League record on the line, Burchfield felt the pressure in her final at-bat.

"Lot of pressure," said the Cougars' No. 2 hitter in the order and second baseman. "Especially because I was 0-for-3 going up there."

The Cougars raised their record to 19-4 and 12-0 in the MSL West, leading Fremd (19-4, 10-2), Barrington (22-5, 10-3) and Schaumburg (15-7, 9-3).

Conant shortstop Lauren Grzelak led off the seventh with a bloop single to shallow center.

Cougars coach CathyAnn Smith then signaled a bunt for Burchfield's first pitch.

After a strike, Smith let the rookie swing away.

And swing away she did.

"When I give her the bunt signal, it's to spark her on the first pitch," Smith said. "Jackie will do anything the coaches ask. And she does it with heart and passion. We know she can hit."

The Cougars provided senior ace Sara Neuman two more runs in the inning.

Cleanup hitter Morgan Bihun (2-for-3, walk) singled to left with one out and Dream Aaron (2-for-4) reached on an error.

The next batter made an out on an infield fly rule, however, the Fillies committed 2 errors on the play allowing both runners to score.

That was plenty of runs for Neuman (16-0), who completed a 4-hitter with 9 strikeouts.

She struck out two and got a pop out to herself in the bottom of the seventh, leaving two runners stranded (Haley Luczak who singled and Carly Kordich who walked).

The Cougars scored twice in the first inning after two were out.

Bihun and Sydney Correa (RBI) had singles and one run scored when Dream Aaron reached on an error.

Barrington answered with 3 runs in the bottom of the inning.

Carly Kordich led off with a walk, followed by Abbey Jacobsen's single to left and a walk to Rachel Macdonald which loaded the bases.

Rachel Krzysko then belted a 2-run double to left center and Liz Sweeney added a one-out sacrifice fly to right for a 3-2 lead.

The scored stay the same until Burchfield's blast.

"I was just trying to hit the ball as hard as I could and I didn't want to let my team down," Burchfield said. "I needed something like that to boost my confidence.

"And I was so glad we added two more runs after that for Sara. I'm real proud of my team. "No matter how far we are down, we are not going to quit. And Sara finished strong."

Neuman stayed confident the offense would pull through for her.

"We put ourselves into a hole in the first inning," she said. "But I was confident. Jackie was due for a big hit like that. There's always big vibes when we play here (Fields of Dreams). But we knew we had to bring positive vibes ourselves."

"Sara is at our core and we had to pull it up behind her," Smith said. "We tell the kids it takes all the pieces of the pie and they did what it takes.

"It's hard to win here. He (Fillies coach Perry Peterson) has a great program and they're organized. I'm proud of our kids."

Sophomore Catherine McMahon (17-4) struck out four for the Fillies.

"We played pretty well for six innings," Peterson said. "Unfortunately, the rules say you have to play for seven innings. But credit Conant, they took advantage of their opportunities better than we did."

"Just that last inning," said Macdonald, who caught McMahon. "We just have work on cleaning up some things and we will do that in practice."