Softball: Fremd stops defending Class 4A champs

Softball

Fremd's softball team had a day to remember at Heritage Park in Wheeling on Saturday.

The Vikings handed defending Class 4A state champion Oak Park-River Forest its first loss to an Illinois team since 2016 with a 4-3 triumph behind senior pitcher Jess Mazur, who struck out 11 while tossing an 8-hitter.

Earlier in the day, Fremd topped New Trier 15-1 in 5 innings to finish 2-1 in its own quad after an 11-9 setback on Thursday to St. Charles North.

"We were pretty disappointed after the loss on Thursday to St. Charles North," said Vikes coach Josh Teschner. "We played pretty poorly with 9 errors and you can't do that against a good team.

"After that, the girls were definitely motivated to get back to practice Friday. And they played absolutely incredibly focused softball in both games (Saturday). It was fun."

It started with a 9 a.m. win over New Trier in which the Vikings had 11 hits, including two apiece from junior Gianna Arnieri (home run), senior Grace Stevens and Mazur (home run).

Lexi D'Ambrosio, Anna Freveletti and Hannah Ban all crushed doubles off the high fence at the Heritage Park diamond.

Nikki Kehoe earned the win, striking out six in three innings. Ban recorded 5 strikeouts in the final 2 innings. They combined for a 2-hitter.

Then it was Mazur's turn to take the mound against Oak Park, which went 37-1 last season.

Mazur has now thrown 10⅓ innings in the first three games, striking out 18.

The Vikings trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the sixth when they scored the decisive 2 runs.

Freveletti drove in the tying run with a triple and Kehoe drove home Freveletti for the 4-3 lead.

Teschner could sense his senior-dominated team was sitting on a big day.

"In pregame warm-ups for New Trier, you could just feel how dialed in they were," he said. "The girls' response Thursday was great. It's a great group of kids.

"We knew that Oak Park would be a difficult test with three Division I girls in a row in their batting order."

The Huskies' Mary Jones had 2 doubles and all 3 RBI for the Huskies.

"The are a talented team," Teschner added. "Their No. 4 and 5 hitters are incredible. But after cleaning up some things in practice on Friday, we felt pretty good about how we lined up with them."

Lined up next on the Vikings' schedule are games at Vernon Hills (Tuesday) and Bartlett (Thursday).

"All our pitchers did an incredible job," Teschner added. "It was a spectacular weekend coming back from Thursday.We played two near-flawless games."

Palatine 9, Glenbrook South 3: The Pirates raised their record to 2-0 as sophomore Rhiann Dick earned her first win of the season with 5 strikeouts.

Kaitlyn Reed (2-for-2, double 2 RBI, 2 runs), Grace Huff (2-for-3, double, RBI), Maddie Craver (2-for-4, double), Emily Parrott (2-for-4, 2 doubles, RBI), Brittany Padden (2-for-3, double) and Sarah Grossman (2-for- 3, 2 RBI, 2 runs) led the offense as the Pirates had 6 doubles among their 12 hits.

Reed, a freshman, had a big day in her first high school game.

"I was really excited about the fact that I got my chance to be in the game and be out on the field with my team," Reed said. " I was just trying to hit the ball hard and get on base. I was really happy with how the team played today and I think we're all doing really well together as a team."

Padden said the team put in a heavy workload during the off-season.

"It's nice to see it paying off," she said. And we're going to be stronger than ever this year."

Parrott led the doubles parade with two.

"It felt good today," she said. "I just had to keep my weight back. And I was able to do that with the communication of my teammates. We were able to help each other."

On the defensive side, Mandy Logan made a nice play to help Dick record a scoreless seventh inning.

"We've all been working really hard in the offseason and it's really paying off," Craver added. "All of our hits are being strung together and we're hitting at the right time and feeding off each other's momentum."

Glenbrook North 9, Buffalo Grove 5: Emily Szczepkowiz (2-for-4) and Lindsay Chron (3-for-3) led host Glenbrook North over the Bison (0-1).