Softball: Fremd's field finale a winning one
By John Leusch
jleusch@dailyherald.com
Senior Day at Fremd provided not only a goodbye to the seniors on the softball team, but also to the Vikings' softball diamond.
A state-of-the-art field is set to be in place next spring on the south side of the campus, directly behind the football stadium.
So Reagan Schneider, Becca Uhrich, Anne Marie O'Sullivan and Sydney Heinrich made up the final senior group to play on the tradition-rich softball diamond located a few steps from school's swimming pool and gymnasium on the west side of the campus.
The senior quartet went out in style on Friday as the Vikings posted a 7-5 victory over crosstown rival Palatine in the Mid-Suburban West game.
"It's surreal, a little insane," said Uhrich, the Vikes second baseman who will attend Illinois and study business. "It's the last game we'll ever play on this field but it's been with one of my favorite teams."
"It's honestly crazy," said Schneider, a three-year starting shortstop who plans to study nursing at Iowa. "It feels like just yesterday I was a freshman coming here and dreaming to play on the varsity. And the fact that this will be the last team to play on this field is unbelievable."
It was also Traditions Day at Fremd as the program also celebrated its alumni and future Vikings.
Hall of Fame coach Jim Weaver, who stepped down as the Vikings head coach last spring, was back for Friday's festivities.
"That was awesome," Schneider said. "I was really happy he came because he was my head coach the last two years."
The coach who fought for the program to start up in the 1970s was Carol Plodzien, a hall of fame girls basketball coach. Plodzien was the Vikings' first softball coach followed by Gary Wilson, Rob Harris and Weaver.
In all, the Vikings have claimed 18 regional titles, five sectional titles, two supersectional and three state trophies in 40 seasons.
Now, first-year coach Josh Teschner will be the last person to serve as head coach on the old field - and the first on the new diamond.
"It's very surreal," said Teschner who was a longtime assistant to Weaver. "We love this particular space because it's right by the school building an we get a lot of the overflow of people leaving the building.
"It's really helped fill our stands to the hilt. But our new field will have all the modern niceties, which will be nice."
Fremd players were nice to their fans in the bottom of the first inning in which they recovered from a 3-0 deficit with 4 runs.
A RBI double by Brittany Padden and a 2-run double by Brooke Bauer gave the Pirates (19-7, 10-4) the quick 3-0 cushion.
However, the Vikings (17-6, 11-4) bounced back with 4 runs thanks to RBI doubles from Uhrich, O'Sullivan and Grace Stevens and an infield RBI single by Anna Freveletti.
Fremd pitcher Nikki Kehoe gave up only 2 runs in the final six innings and finished with 7 strikeouts and no walks to raise her record to 10-4.
"That's two games in row Nikki has done the job," Teschner said. "The problem is that we're hurting ourselves giving teams runs early and having to fight back. But no question, Nikki never got flustered or relented. She did a great job."
The Vikings padded their lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Stevens (scored catcher Lexi D'Ambrosio) and a two-out RBI single to right by Hannah Ban to score Anna Freveletti.
In the top of the fourth, Grace Huff (3-for-4) reached on a two-out infield single and went to second on an error on the play.
Maddie Craver's single to right got Huff home to cut the deficit to 6-4.
Fremd went ahead 7-4 on Steven's second RBI double which scored Freveletti in the fifth inning.
Stevens ended up 2-for-2 with 3 RBI while Freveletti was 3-for-3 with 1 RBI.
"Anna and Grace did a phenomenal job today," Teschner added. "All of the girls have had really nice approaches and been really patient and done a nice job."
The Pirates scored their final run in the top of the seventh when Bauer (2-for-4) collected her second RBI double. It scored Craver (2-for-4) with two outs before Kehoe got the final out on a grounder to Uhrich.
Freshman Rhiann Dick also had one of the Pirates' 8 hits.
Senior Sarah Grossman threw 7⅓ innings of relief, giving up only 1 earned run.
"Sarah did a great job of shutting them down," said Palatine coach Nicole Pauly. "When you have 5 errors against a team like Fremd, it's hard to come back.
"I think we hit in the first inning but I don't what happened after that. I thought Grace (Huff) did a great job. The top of our lineup did a really good job getting on base. We were just looking to break through at some point but we never did."
Schneider, Uhrich and O'Sullivan (University of Colorado-Boulder to study business) and Heinrich (Harper College) were all honored on the diamond after the contest.
"It was a really nice way to end our home season and a great job by our seniors," Teschner said. "Everyone got to contribute in some way. They were hitting the ball hard, doing the right things and had a good approach at the plate."