Softball: Conant's Carlucci, Correa help control key victory

With the date of the 13th being the anniversary day of her grandparents and parents and the birthday of her grandfather, it all adds up to why Jackie Carlucci wears jersey No. 13 for her Conant softball team.

And things added up quite well for Carlucci on Friday as she threw a complete game for a 7-4 Mid-Suburban West victory at Fremd.

The junior right-hander (3-1) threw a 9-hitter with 4 strikeouts, including two big ones in the bottom of the seventh. The win raised the Cougars overall record to 6-3 and 4-1 in the Mid-Suburban West, good for second place, 1½ games behind Barrington (6-0).

"Jackie killed it," said classmate Sydney Correa (2-for-4) who did the same with her bat, drilling a pair of 2-run singles for 4 of the Cougars' first 6 runs of the game. "Jackie really showed up for the team."

Carlucci also showed admiration for her catcher Lauren Grzelak, who signaled the pitches.

"I always feel comfortable with whatever she calls," Carlucci said. "She is 100 percent reassuring for me behind the plate. We were definitely keeping batters off balance with the screwball and we threw a lot of riseballs, and fastballs outside."

The Cougars' only other multiple hitter was leadoff batter Makenna McCarthy, who went 3-for-3 with a walk. The Winona State-bound center fielder led off the game with a single to left.

She stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Morgan Bihun drew a two-out walk in the inning and scored along with McCarthy on Correa's single to right.

"I love being at bat with runners on base and being able to contribute to our team," Correa said. "We worked on that in practice on Thursday. We did drills in certain situations and trying to place the ball to certain spots with runners on base."

In the fourth, Correa's one-out single to center brought home Bihun and Carly Rossdeutcher to make it 6-1. Moments earlier, Rosseutcher also had a 2-run single. Jackie Birchfield doubled in the big inning.

The Cougars' other run came in the fourth when Bihun singled home McCarthy with two outs to make it 7-1.

The Vikings got 2 runs back in the bottom of the fourth on RBI singles by Anna Freveletti and Reagan Schneider, who led the Vikes' offense by going 3-for-4 from the leadoff spot.

Catcher Lexi D'Ambrosio, who made a nice catch of a foul popup late in the game, was 2-for-3. No. 8 hitter Hannah Ban went 2-for-3 with a RBI double in the sixth inning that closed the deficit to 7-4.

But after giving up a leadoff hit to Schneider in the seventh, Carlucci retired the next three batters to give Conant the win.

"Jackie just needed to get her pitches where we needed them to be," said Cougars coach Cathyann Smith. "I'm proud of the energy the girls showed and how hard Jackie worked. We knew we had to be prepared to face good hitting from Fremd all the up and down the lineup from No. 1 to 9. So it was a matter of pitching and playing defense (no errors)."

Fremd starting pitcher Jess Mazur (1-for-2, walk) and teammate Kaylee Goluch also hit safely.

Vikings coach Josh Teschner had seen his team come from behind in four of its 8 wins this spring.

"But the reality is that when you're going against a good team like Conant that is well-coached, you are going to have a hard time doing that," he said. "You can't put yourself in a position early in the game where you are popping out, chasing counts and not in position to drive the ball regardless of how much power you have."

The Vikings are still in the thick of contention in the West with a record of 4-2.

"We know we can compete inside the conference," Teschner said. "We feel like we have all the pieces. It's just a matter of putting it together."