Softball: Timmons' blast beats West Aurora

Freshman McKayla Timmons set the South Elgin home run record Tuesday, spoiling an otherwise perfect day in the circle for West Aurora sophomore Payton Lundberg.

Timmons' 10th home run of the season was the only run either team scored in the Storm's 1-0 victory.

The win kept West Aurora (24/7, 12-2) from clinching the Upstate Eight Valley and gives South Elgin (13-12, 7-5) a boost heading into the stretch run.

Lundberg opened the game striking out the first 12 batters until Timmons socked a 1-2 pitch over the center field fence leading off the bottom of the fifth.

"My approach was just to get a groundball, get on base," said Timmons. "It felt really good coming off the bat. Going forward into regionals to beat the team winning our conference, this is a really good boost."

Of all the pitchers for Timmons to hit the record homer against, it couldn't have come against a much more difficult one than the DePaul-committ Lundberg. She finished with a 1-hitter, 14 strikeouts and no walks.

Lundberg fired another gem on the same South Elgin field as a freshman last year - a no-hitter with 19 strikeouts.

That's 33 strikeouts and 1 hit allowed in her two games at South Elgin.

But that one hit was a big one for Timmons.

"As a freshman what can I say, she's been a real blessing for our program," South Elgin coach Brad Reynard said. "She got all of that one. She didn't look good her first at-bat, a lot of us didn't. She's (Lundberg) a heck of a pitcher. Her rise is just a blowup rise ball."

While Lundberg was overpowering the Storm with her rise ball, South Elgin starter Sidney Strama kept West Aurora off balance with her location.

The Blackhawks managed just 4 hits and didn't have many serious scoring chances, leaving a runner at third base in the second inning and one at second base in the sixth. Strama struck out six and walked two.

"I'm not a speed pitcher," said Strama, who liked the way her screwball and drop curve were working. "He (the umpire) was giving me the outside corner. I just hit my spots and that's what I do and I'm just really excited. I feel really good about this."

Geneva ended West Aurora's 31-game UEC winning streak Friday, and the Blackhawks have now lost two straight in conference and three of four overall.

"We're in a little hitting funk," Blackhawks coach Randy Hayslett said. "It's not the right time to do it but we have a couple weeks to recover. We'll figure it out."

Which is just what Reynard hopes his team has done.

"We talk about putting feathers in our cap and that's definitely one we can look at," Reynard said. "We've been close in a few of our games but it's good to finally get over the hump."