St. Charles East takes two from Naperville Central
St. Charles East pitchers Krista Sbarra and Delaney Devor both earned victories Saturday as the Saints swept a softball doubleheader at Naperville Central in two games that were exact opposites of each other.
Devor went the distance, allowing just four hits and striking out four as the Saints (11-3) downed the Redhawks 14-1 in five innings in Game 1. Devor was backed up by 10 St. Charles East hits, including 2 homers with runners on including a 2-run shot from her.
In the nightcap Sbarra also went the distance as the Saints held off Naperville Central 3-2.
"I thought my screwball looked good," Devor said. "If a batter was on one of my pitches, I would throw a changeup. Even though we had a big lead, I stayed focused because anytime you can have a long inning."
The Saints wasted no time in the opening game getting on the scoreboard, going up 2-0 in their half of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Maddie Candre walked and later scored on a wild pitch. Maddy Stout walked and with one out came home on Paige Ligocki's sacrifice fly.
After going down in order in the second, St. Charles East broke the game wide open in the third batting around and scoring 10 runs on 6 hits. The big hit was Stout's first-pitch 3-run homer. The next inning saw Devor smash her homer. Sara Campagna led off with a single to center and with two out, Devor connected on her hit.
Naperville Central's lone run came in the fourth. Grace Biondo nailed a single to left to start the inning and scored on Jordan Tassi's groundball that turned into a fielder's choice.
"It was nice to see us come through in the order 1 to 9. We have made mistakes in our previous wins, but today we put a solid offensive game together," said Saints coach Jarod Gutesha.
St. Charles East jumped ahead first in Game 2 thanks to an RBI single from Candre and sacrifice fly from Jordan Hieber. The Saints made it 3-0 the following inning. Hannah Cozzi led off with a single to right center and scored with two outs on Megan Daly's basehit.
The Redhawks (3-9) made it 3-1 in their half of the fourth. Tassi singled to left and scored on a fielding error. In the fifth Naperville Central leadoff hitter Abbey Place singled to center with Halle Arends' single scoring her.
Naperville Central threatened into the bottom of the seventh with a play at the plate turning into the third out.
Sbarra said teamwork has been key to the Saints' success that has been earned so far.
"We try to help each other and we're always backing each other up," she said.
As for the Redhawks, coach Andy Nussbaum said Game 2 showed what Naperville Central is capable of doing. But certain things have to change.
"We're making fundamental mistakes that we can't make. We're making baserunning errors, defensive errors and we walked too many in Game 1," he said. "Game 2 showed that we're really close to being a good team. I thought (starting pitcher Halle Arends) had her best game of the year so far."