Softball: Bartlett bats active against Glenbard North
Bartlett junior softball player Alexis Zamora came to bat in the second inning Wednesday at Glenbard North with extra motivation.
“I was a little nervous because last game I didn't hit too well,” Zamora said. “I really wanted to get up to the plate and prove to myself that I could be a good hitter. When that first pitch came, I just went for it.”
Zamora took her first pitch and deposited it over the left-center field fence as part of a 19-hit attack in the Hawks' 13-3 nonconference victory in Carol Stream.
In her first full varsity season Zamora began the game as the designated player but later played right field and caught a flyball for the final out.
Her home run ball, which also scored courtesy runner Lindsey Stoefen to put Bartlett (2-2-1) ahead for good at 3-2, later was given to Zamora as a memento.
“I'll keep it in my room,” Zamora said. “This is my first one of the season so it was really exciting to finally hit one.”
Winning pitcher Janelle Ulaszek (2-0) was 4 for 5 and Amber Pagan, Elisabeth DiNuzzo and Caitlin Fippinger and Charlotte Linnartz each had 3 hits. By the Hawks' 3-run fourth for a 7-2 advantage, everyone in the lineup had a hit.
“We swung the bats real well,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “We've kind of been fighting ourselves swinging at pitchers' strikes and I thought they did a good job of taking balls that were strikes but weren't good strikes to hit at. They did a good job of hitting the hittable pitches, and hitting them hard.”
Leadoff hitter Elyse Hickey hit the fence on a fly and Ulaszek hit the fence and Linnartz the warning track with their doubles. Pagan had a 2-run single in the fourth and had a leadoff single in a 5-run sixth that included Taylor Rotondo's second RBI single and Ulaszek's double. DiNuzzo had an RBI single in the seventh.
“I think this game is the first where it's felt like we've started to come together and everyone has jelled,” Pagan said. “Everyone was contributing and doing their part, which really helps. Hitting is contagious.”
Zamora's home run still came as a surprise in more ways than one.
“She was like, ‘Did that really happen?' when she got back in the dugout. When you put a good hit on a good pitch and a little bit of wind, that's going to happen,” Wolfsmith said.
“I didn't know if it actually went over so that's why I was a little surprised when they were telling me to keep going,” Zamora said.
Glenbard North (0-3) had struck for two runs in the first with Kayla Quanstrum's RBI single and an infield error on Shruti Amin's grounder. With one out and the bases still loaded, Ulaszek escaped by throwing home for a force and getting her second of six strikeouts.
“It's good playing good competition and they got the better half of us again today,” Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew said. “We've got to take advantage of anything we can get offensively. We haven't been able to capitalize when we've gotten bases loaded.”
Defensively, the Panthers surrendered their second 5-run inning this season. In their opener they gave up a 9-run inning in a 2-1 game.
“We've got to be able to catch the ball. There were a couple that I felt we didn't chase down the way I'd like us to,” said Sanew, whose team had 4 errors. “At times we look like we can do a lot of good things. And then pretty much each one of these three games, we've had that one inning. We've got to stay away from that big inning.”
After two hits the first inning Ulaszek allowed 4 and an unearned run over the next five before Pagan pitched the seventh. Ulaszek had a complete-game 4-2 victory at Neuqua Valley on Tuesday.
“I'm really impressed with her control, her movement. She's around the zone on a regular basis, which makes her hard to hit,” Wolfsmith said.
Glenbard North seniors Heather Anderson and Gabby Melchiorre, a Robert Morris recruit, each had 2 hits with a double. Anderson's fifth-inning double scored starting pitcher Kaitlyn Scheitler (0-1) after she reached on an error.