Softball: Krzysko, Barrington sign off a winner at Hersey
Barrington senior Rachel Krzysko signed a letter of intent on Wednesday and then used her bat to put her signature on the softball Thursday.
The right fielder hit the ball hard in all five her at-bats, getting robbed of hits twice.
The Purdue recruit went 2-for-4 with a sacrifice fly and 2 RBI as Barrington produced a 13-2 triumph over Hersey (6 innings) in the Mid-Suburban League crossover in Arlington Heights.
Krzysko was part of an impressive hit parade which saw all nine Fillies produce at least 1 hit.
In all, the Fillies had 14 hits, including sophomore Leyden Atlas (2-for-4), junior Julia Kozar (2-for-4), junior Jenna Patino (2-for-4) and sophomore Tori Meyer (2-for-3).
"You've got to give credit where credit is due," said Hersey coach Molly Freeman, whose team is 6-3 and 1-2. "They are just really good at doing everything the right way. They take the extra base. If the pitch is not a strike, they let it go. If it's a strike, they're swinging. It's hard to pitch around their hitters, because they're all so good."
Krzysko is fortunate to have a good hitter right in her own family. Her sister Loren, one of Barrington's all-time greats, recently had a game-winning hit for Arkansas when it defeated Missouri last weekend.
"I watch her games all the time," Rachel said. "She is my biggest inspiration. I love everything she does."
Rachel is also loving the start the Fillies have had in her senior year. They improved to 11-1 on Thursday and are the only 3-0 team in the MSL.
"I really happy so far and I hope we are able to do what we did my sophomore year when we went downstate," she said. "But we know it takes one step at a time. And right now we just want to do well in the conference."
Catherine McMahon has been doing well on the pitcher's mound. The junior right-hander raised her record to 8-1 as she struck out two and gave up 4 hits in the first three innings. Tori Meyer went the final three innings, also giving up 4 hits with 3 strikeouts.
The Fillies fell behind 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning when Northern Illinois recruit Katie Wingerter launched a rocket over the left center field fence for her seventh homer of the season and 32nd of her career.
But the Fillies wasted little time regrouping, coming up with 9 runs in the top of the second. Atlas started the big rally with a single to right. A one-out walk to Haley Luczak and single to center by Kozar loaded the bases before Patino belted a 2-run double to center.
"Honestly, our team was just fired up from start to finish," Patino said. "We are just all out there having fun and staying loose. When we are all on, we all pick each other up and it's a lot of fun."
After Patino's double, Meyer drew a walk to load the bases again. and Atlas followed with a 2-run double. Kendall Peterson kept the rally alive with a single and Luczak reached on an error that brought home Atlas for the ninth run.
"Even though we had that big inning, I encouraged them to keep competing all the way to the end," said Barrington coach Perry Peterson. "And they did a good job with that."
The Fillies added an unearned run in the fifth and then scored twice in the seventh on RBI singles by Patino and Meyer.
The Fillies defense also came up with a pair of double plays. The first was a 1-2-3 when McMahon fielded a grounder, threw to catcher Abbey Jacobsen who threw to first baseman Luczak to end the Huskies' third inning.
Third baseman Peterson fielded a groundball with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. The sophomore tagged the runner leaving third base, threw to Jacobsen, who fired back to Peterson for the force.
Jackie Bednar and Sophia Cano were multiple hitters for Hersey (6-3, 1-2) which also had hits from Jodie Hermann, Hannah Graff and Asia Luboyeski. The Huskies were without sophomore leadoff batter Mikayla Tsagalis (rib injury).