Softball: Kaneland falls to DeKalb

Kaneland's softball team won the home run battle but DeKalb made its long ball count the more Thursday afternoon.

Sophomore Mallory Warner smacked a 3-run home run to highlight a 4-run, sixth-inning rally as the Barbs (11-14-1, 5-6-1) stunned the Knights 4-3 in Northern Illinois Big XII East action in Maple Park.

"That's huge," DeKalb coach Jeff Davis said of Warner's home run that came on a 3-1 offering from reliever Aly Jesionowski. "It's one of the reasons why we brought Ashley (Nelson) up to varsity. We need her (Mallory) to drive in runs for us and not be worrying about pitching so much."

Knights starting pitcher Emilee Erickson limited the Barbs to a pair of singles through 5 innings before allowing a single to Mackenzie Riggs and a walk to Taiylor Karasewski to lead off the sixth.

At that point, Kaneland coach Mike Kuefler elected to go to his bullpen.

"Emilee's a freshman for us and we keep a pretty close eye on her pitch count," said Kuefler. "She was getting up there. We just felt that a change was needed at that point with the meat of the order (coming up)."

The Barbs added an insurance run on a costly defensive miscue before Kaneland pulled within 4-3 on Maddie Wheatley's 2-out solo home run in the bottom half of the frame.

DeKalb starting pitcher Torrie Newport pitched the first 6 innings before Davis turned to Nelson in the seventh.

The freshman retired the first two batters and was ahead in the count 0-1 on Knights leadoff batter Morgan Weber when Davis visited for a mound meeting.

"We wanted to see if she (Weber) would get herself out being a little anxious but she's a well-seasoned senior and a great ballplayer," said Davis. "We pretty much walked around her. We were going to take our chances with somebody else."

Nelson retired the final batter on a grounder to first baseman Jenna Levine.

"I'm not disappointed," said Kuefler. "All year long we've been in close games. We've always seemed to work our way back in a game and be victorious but today DeKalb did what it could to keep us off-balance."

Kaneland grabbed 2-0 lead on back-to-back solo home runs from Weber (2 for 2, 2 walks) and Donatela Sommesi in the fifth.

"The home runs are great but we you don't string hits together…," said Kuefler, whose team clinched the conference title earlier in the week. "The girls will learn something from this. Probably the biggest thing we're learning is that all of these teams know them now. There are no secrets anymore so it's getting tougher for them."

The two teams meet again Tuesday in DeKalb.

"They're definitely going to have a target on their backs now," said Weber.