Softball: Conant connects in regional opener

Fifteenth-seeded Glenbard East hit the scoreboard first on Wednesday.

But then the Conant softball team began to hit.

The Rams' 1-0 lead vanished in the bottom of the first when Conant catcher Lauren Grzelak drew a two-out bases-loaded walk to tie the game.

"There might be a little nervousness," said Grzelak about falling behind 1-0. "But there's never too much concern when that happens. We always know we can come back with our bats."

Which is exactly what the Cougars did, closing out an 11-1 five-inning triumph with 9 hits in the semifinals of the Cougars' own Class 4A regional.

No. 2 seeded Conant (21-6) will play the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 South Elgin and No. 10 Glenbard North for the championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"It was early enough in the game (1-0 deficit) that we still have a lot of confidence," said veteran third baseman Morgan Bihun. "We have good bats so we don't really worry a lot whether or not we are going to start to hit."

Junior Sydney Correa (1 walk) reached on an infield error to score senior Maddy Meier (1-for-1, 2 walks) in the second inning for a 2-1 lead and the Cougars were on their way.

They added 4 runs in the third and 5 in the fourth to give winning pitcher Jill Gadomski (11-3) and Jackie Carlucci (9-2) all the support they needed.

Gadomski went the first 4 innings, giving up just 2 hits and striking out three while Carlucci struck out the side in the fifth to seal the verdict.

"Everything was solid today," said Grzelak, who has been a solid-four year varsity player for the Cougars and will study to be a doctor at Duke University. "Both pitchers looked good, working a lot of different pitches.

"Sam's change-up was really effective today and Jackie came in and shut them down in that last inning."

The Rams (9-20) got their lead in the first when Ariana King reached on an infield error to start the game.

She went to third on Sam Dooley's sacrifice and scored on junior pitcher Tori Tyler's deep sacrifice fly to left field with one out.

But the Cougars played solid defense the rest of the game and put plenty of runs on the board, led by Jackie Birchfield (2-for-3, 3 runs), Carly Rossdeutcher (2-for-3, triple, 2 runs) and Paige Nallen (2-for-2, 2 RBI).

King broke up the no-hitter with a two-out bunt single in the top of third inning.

"We didn't play very well," said Glenbard East coach Dawn Chantos. "We scored in the first inning but just couldn't generate much offense after that. We do not normally give up that many walks. We struggled finding the strike zone."

Tyler, who struck out 18 batters on Monday against Rolling Meadows, had the Rams' only RBI and one of their 2 hits.

"Tori had two nice at-bats," Chantos said. "She's been one of our stronger hitters all season. She just wasn't herself on the mound today and we didn't come back with the offense to help her."

Also helping the Cougars offense were Bihun (1-for-1, 2 walks) and Makenna McCarthy (sacrifice bunt, walk).

"With the weather and graduation, all these little things factor into what the girls know they have to deal with," said Cougars coach Cathyann Smith. "But I know they are focused on softball because they want to repeat last year's regional championship and go further in the postseason than last year."