Softball: Triple play helps Hampshire hold off Cary-Grove
Hampshire catcher Abby Egger couldn't recall ever being part of a triple play before. Her first one came at just the right time Monday for the Whip-Purs.
Cary-Grove loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate looking to erase a 5-1 deficit.
Jill Deering hit a fly ball that Jasmine Lopez caught in deep right field. Lopez fired home too late to get Lexi German tagging and scoring from third.
On the throw home, Cary-Grove's Jazmin Flashing tried to take second, and Egger threw late to shortstop Delaney Rummell.
On the throw to second, Cary-Grove's Francesca Cruz tried to score from third, but Rummell's throw to Egger got Cruz. Egger then alertly fired to Gwen Malecke at third base to get Flashing trying to take third to complete the triple play.
"It was insane, we couldn't believe that just happened," Egger said. "It got our momentum back."
The Trojans had to settle for a run in that inning, then scored one more in the seventh in a 5-3 Hampshire win.
Hampshire (5-5, 2-2) capitalized on 7 errors by a Cary-Grove team coming off a doubleheader sweep of St. Charles North on Saturday.
The Trojans (9-3, 2-2) might have overcome all those mistakes Monday if not for the rare triple play.
"There was a bunch of energy going on," Egger said. "It was crazy. You have to see what's going on, where the runners are and go with your best feeling for it. I heard everyone screaming two so I went there. (On the throw home) I tagged her and went onto the next play (at third)."
"That was heads-up of her to know as soon as she got the tag she had the runner at third," Hampshire coach Kelly Wasilewski said. "We work on that. Girls are in position, they are going to take care of it."
Lopez started the game and worked the first four innings, leaving with a 5-1 lead. Katie Del Re pitched the next 2 and 1/3 innings before Shai-Ann Currie entered with runners at second and third in the seventh.
Emma Hill drove in a run on a groundout to make it 5-3 before Currie ended the game getting a strikeout.
"The goal this season is to mix it up and get them all working," Wasilewski said of her three pitchers. "They know their jobs and they understand they may throw two innings and switch them in and out to throw the other team off a little bit. They all throw a little differently."
Hill also had an RBI single in the first to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead. The Whip-Purs tied the game in the second on an unearned run and scored another unearned run in the third before a leadoff error ignited a 3-run fourth inning that included an RBI double from Morgan Haefling and Melissa Esparza's RBI single. Both Haefling and Esparza had 2 hits.
Kelly Johnson, German and Flashing all had 2 hits for Cary-Grove.
"That was a lot of errors," Cary-Grove coach Tammy Olson said. "We were not sharp. They put the pressure on and we seemed to crumble after every one of them. Everything went wrong today. Everything we tried to do today pretty much ended up in Hampshire's favor. We have a nice record but we have a lot to do, a lot to learn and we've got to keep on plugging away and working hard."