Softball: West Chicago's bats come alive at Larkin
The West Chicago girls softball team finally found what its been looking for all season on Thursday afternoon and that is consistent hitting.
Every player in the Wildcats' starting lineup and even 2 more players off the bench had hits in a 6-inning 12-2 route of host Larkin in Upstate Eight Conference crossover action.
West Chicago pounded out 18 hits in all with Arianna Elizondo leading the hit parade going 3-for-4 with 3 RBI.
"Throughout the season we have been getting a good amount of base runners we just have struggled to bring them in and score runs," West Chicago coach Sean Gimpert said. "Today we were able to string some hits together and keep some rallies going."
West Chicago (2-7, 1-3) trailed 2-0 and had left 5 runners on base through 2 innings. However, the Wildcats finally started getting on track in the third inning when Alyssa Szulczewski roped an RBI double for their first run of the game.
The Wildcats scored 3 runs in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead. Maddie Smith had a 2-run triple and Gianna Hernandez followed with a run-scoring single.
"We were facing a slower pitcher today, so we had to make an adjustment," Gimpert said. "We moved up to the plate. It took one time through the order for everything to start to click."
The Wildcats tacked on an unearned run in the fifth inning before exploding for seven runs in the sixth inning. Elizondo had a 2-run single in the rally. She had also driven a run in on a groundout in the fifth inning.
"It was slower pitching so I tried to time it the best I could in the on the deck circle," Elizondo said. "Our energy level was really high this game and we just kept picking ourselves up."
Aimee Cejna, Isabella Zentner, Emily Murphy, and Anjali Patel all had RBI singles in the sixth inning. Szulczewski added a sacrifice fly.
Zentner started in the circle for the Wildcats and went the distance. She gave up a 2-run homer in the second inning, but then buckled down to retire 15 of the final 18 batters.
"I just had to shake it off," Zentner said of the homer. "I just went right back at it. My changeup was working pretty well and I was able to get a few outs with my screwball. Having the lead gave me a lot more confidence. I knew I just had to throw strikes."
Zentner struck out 3 batters and walked just 2.
"She has put together 3 straight goo outings," Gimpert said. "She has been real efficient with her pitches keeping it low and mixing it up."
The Royals (1-9, 0-4) had their lone highlight come on a 2-run homer over the center field fence by Alexa Urbanik in the second inning.
"She has shown a lot of potential in practice, but that's her first home run in a game," Larkin coach Anne Voight said. "We've been working a lot with her on taking a more aggressive swing. She is a big strong kid who hits the ball hard when she makes contact.
"As a team we just didn't hit enough today. You have to score runs to win."