Softball: Another thriller for Warren
As exciting as April has been for Warren's softball team, the Blue Devils expect even more excitement in May.
Coach Jenna Charbonneau is expecting, after all. Her first child, a girl, is due soon.
"Eleven days out," a smiling and round-bellied Charbonneau said Tuesday after her Blue Devils outlasted host Libertyville 2-1 in nine innings to remain undefeated in North Suburban Conference play. "We're getting to the home stretch."
Warren's second win against Libertyville this season did not lack for thrills, even though starting pitchers Caitlyn Britton of the Blue Devils and Amanda Page of the Wildcats did a good job of keeping situations calm.
After Warren scored twice in the top of the ninth on Emma Gratz's RBI groundout and Ashlyn Kitter's run-scoring single, Libertyville's first two batters in the bottom of the inning reached base. But Britton got a double-play groundball, even though a run scored, and then induced a grounder to first base to end the extra-inning game.
The win hiked Warren's record to 12-1 and 5-0 in the NSC. Libertyville dropped to 10-5 and 3-2.
"They were tough today," Charbonneau said of the Wildcats. "Their pitcher was bringing it. She was hitting that outside corner all game. And that second baseman (Sarah Bennett), you got to give it up to her. She had a ton of putouts (5 assists, 3 putouts, no errors)."
Page struck out six and allowed only 6 hits and two walks. She also kept Penn State-bound Claire Swedberg (1-for-5, bunt single) and Central Michigan-commit Britton (0-for-4) from doing any damage. All of Warren's hits were singles.
"She had a really good game today," Libertyville coach Elissa Wisniewski said of Page, a junior and first-year varsity pitcher. "She has times where she pitches like this all the time, and then there are times where she shows she's new to the (varsity) level. But she's done a really good job of learning as she goes and really competing well against good teams."
The 5-foot-3 Page, who beat Fremd last weekend, made sure she kept her pitches off the plate against a dangerous-hitting Warren team.
"We have our locations," Page said. "Black is right on the corner of the plate, and then we have river, which is in between the chalk line and the black. I was shooting for chalk or river that whole game, because if I gave them black or hung one, it was gone."
Libertyville's Alyia Haddon went 3-for-4 with a double, accounting for half of the Wildcats' hits against Britton. The junior right-hander struck out seven and walked one, and the run she allowed was unearned.
Warren's offense finally touched Page in the ninth, which started with a leadoff single by Carissa Topolinski. She moved up on Kayla Nommensen's sacrifice bunt and stopped at third on Kayla Hopkins' single. A sliding Topolinski scored on Gratz's 6-3 groundout.
Then after Kelly Beck walked, the lefty-hitting Kitter dropped a single into left for a big insurance run.
"We got a little flustered (earlier in the game offensively)," Britton said. "But we came back and just came together as a team."
Charbonneau plans to take a couple of weeks off after giving birth. She says her goal is to be back for regionals.
"I know she doesn't want to be gone for long," Britton said. "But we want her to be healthy, so however long she needs to stay out is OK.
"But we're really excited about her baby coming."