Softball: West Aurora, Beatus complete St. Charles sweep
Something about St. Charles - East or North - that brings out the best in Hannah Beatus.
As good as those two schools are in year in and year out, Beatus has been better.
The West Aurora senior beat both St. Charles schools last year, and she completed the trick again this season with a 3-2 win over the North Stars Monday in Aurora.
Beatus, headed to Grand Valley State, struck out 14 and didn't walk a batter as the Blackhawks won their 24th straight Upstate Eight Conference game.
"Being St. Charles, you always know it's going to be a good game. It's so nice to face good competition and get challenged like that," Beatus said.
"My changeup was spinning really well so I think that helped keep them off-balance especially when we went change/rise. They saw the low pitch and then it was really hard for them to stay off the high pitch."
West Aurora won by the same score Monday as it did last week against St. Charles East, a game Beatus fanned 15 and walked none.
In both games the Blackhawks trailed 2-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth. Last week Kallie Rundle slammed a 2-run homer to win it; this time she blooped a double into right field to score Sophia Delgado and tie the game 2-2. Delgado had reached on the only walk of the game to start the inning.
With two outs and pinch runner Gabi Nilles on second, Payton Lundberg ripped a ball into left field that the North Stars infield couldn't knock down, scoring Nilles and giving the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead.
"It's nice to see us come through but at the same time it's so nerve-wracking," Beatus said. "I think it shows a lot of the character on this team and how much fight we have."
Beatus did the rest, with two strikeouts in the seventh inning sandwiched by a comebacker.
"Hannah gets amped up for those games," West Aurora coach Randy Hayslett said. "We love playing St. Charles. Hannah had a great game. That's Hannah being Hannah. She wants these games."
"There's a couple plays I think we could have made and we didn't. Once in awhile we are going to make a defensive miscue and you can't be sitting at one run all the time."
West Aurora (14-3, 5-0) took a 1-0 lead in the first when Beatus led off with a single and scored on Rundle's double to deep right.
St. Charles North (5-2, 1-1) tied the game in the third, capitalizing on some shaky West Aurora defense that included a short pop falling between the shortstop and left fielder, and a dropped line drive off the bat of Jordyn Wolfe.
The game stayed 1-1 until Wolfe bunted for a hit in the sixth, stole second, and scored when the Blackhawks couldn't come up with Ali Moberg's hard grounder to second.
Jillian Waslawski took a hard-luck loss for the North Stars, who have big games coming up this week including St. Charles East on Wednesday.
"Jill battled," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "That's a good team where every run is precious. You know coming here it is going to be 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 - I would bet my life it is going to be one of those three scores.
"We're not playing really good softball right now. We are playing good enough to compete against good teams and beat everybody else. We have a lot of work to do if we want to call ourselves champions of anything."