Softball: Elk Grove makes itself home in dome

Elk grove softball coach Ken Grams has reached 907 career wins.

Nine hundred of those have been outdoors.

Saturday was his seventh indoors.

Due to inclement weather, the Grenadier's game with Antioch was moved about 100 yards from the Bandits Stadium to the Rosemont Dome.

And the Grens quickly made themselves at home, striking for 5 runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 5-1 lead en route to an 11-6 nonconference win that ended the regular season for both teams.

"Jumping on first pitch strikes really helped us," said Grens senior Amy Pietruszynski, who belted the first triple of her career to drove in 2 runs in the third inning. "Everyone was hitting."

The Grens (24-9) took advantage of 3 hits and 3 walks in the bottom of the first.

The 5 runs came off a 2-run single to left by Jessica Kearns, 2-run triple to right by Christina DiMaria and an RBI groundout to second by Keeley Cronin.

"That first inning really put us in hole," said Antioch coach Anthony Rocco, whose team (23-8) is ranked No. 5 in the ICA Class 3A poll. "It limited us on what we could do offensively. You've got to credit them (Elk Grove). They really didn't let us back into it offensively."

The Grens were led on offense by Haley Itzenthaler (3-for-4), Kearns (3-for-4, 2 RBI), winning pitcher Sabra Morton (2-for-5) and Pietruszynski (2-for-4), who reached base three times and was robbed of a fourth when she lined a shot to center field caught by a leaping Piper Foote.

"They're a great hitting team," Rocco said. "And they've got two great pitchers (Morton and Kylie Thomsen) just like we do (Stephanie Bonaguido and Hannah Cook). It just came down to giving them that big inning and the small mistakes we made early on."

The Grens went ahead 7-2 in the bottom of the second inning on a RBI double from Katie Pendowski and RBI single by Kearns.

Trailing 9-2, the Sequoits got 2 runs back in the fourth and fifth innings to get to within 9-6.

Annie Wagner had an RBI single in the forth and Avery Malicki singled home a run in the fifth.

Jillian Foote and Carlie Gaylord each went 2-for-4 for the Northern Lake County Conference champions, while Malicki was 2-for-3 and Wagner 2-for-2.

"I was confident on the turf field," Rocco said. "We've stole a ton of bases and we're a team built on speed. So every time we walk, reach on an error or hit by pitch, we can do damage real quickly. We showed that today but we just gave up the big inning."

The Grens added runs in the fifth and sixth on Thomsen's sacrifice fly to center that scored Pietruszynski and Itzenthaler's single to center that brought home Kearns making it 11-6.

"With the weather the way it was, it was nice to be able to move inside and get a game in," Grams said. "It gave us a chance to get everyone an at-bat, and out in the field. It was a good jumping-off point for next week (the Grens host own their regional).

"Sabra (Morton) did fine and Kylie (Thomsen) came in and was pretty efficient with her pitches, which helped. Our errors were minimal which was good and we hit the ball ."

"It was a good way to end the season," said senior Leiliani Rivera, who also played basketball at Elk Grove. "It was especially nice going into the postseason. It's always nice to started with a W heading into the regional. We weren't really used to this kind of turf but we did well."

Morton, who struck out four, raised her record to 9-3 with the help of Thomsen, who retired the final five batters she faced.

"It was a good win to pick us up after our last loss (11-1 to Palatine)," Pietruszynski added. "It's a little different playing inside. The turf is a little scary (with bigger hops) but we did fine."

Grams, whose club is ranked No. 23 in the ICA Class 4A state poll, hopes history will repeat itself.

"Last year, we beat a good Richards team here (in the last regular-season game at the outdoor Bandits stadium)," he said. "And that was a good spring board to the postseason where we had a nice run."