Softball: West Aurora rebounds against South Elgin
A short memory proved to be a good thing for West Aurora.
A day after giving up 9 unearned runs in an 18-4 loss to Batavia, the Blackhawks looked like a different team against Upstate Eight Valley leader South Elgin.
Gab Drager pitched a complete game and was one of a number of Blackhawks who had a good day both in the field and at the plate in a 5-1 victory.
"We said yesterday let's forget about this, it happens to everyone, let's come out a lot stronger and we did," Drager said. "I think we went home and thought about what we did and reflected on it and came out a lot stronger."
Drager scattered 8 hits and walked just 1 while striking out 2. She said she's been texting last year's ace and three-time All-Area selection Hannah Beatus, now at Grand Valley State.
"Filling Hannah's shoes I knew I had to work so hard and I have and it's showing," Drager said.
West Aurora (6-6, 4-3) grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Janae Holloway walked, Gab Nilles singled and Sophia Delgado walked to load the bases with no outs.
South Elgin starter Geneva Pollman hit Drager to score the first run, and Payton Lundberg plated the next with a sacrifice fly.
The Storm (6-7, 5-2) scored their only run in the third inning when Casey Brennan singled and scored on Pollman's double.
Kennedy Zies got the run back for West Aurora in its half of the third with a single up the middle. The Blackhawks added a pair of insurance runs in the fifth, a rally started with a single by Faith Pokryfke and Drager's double off the fence.
Lundberg singled home Pokryfke, and Shai Erdrich doubled home the final run. The inning ended in strange fashion when a West Aurora player in the dugout reached over the fence and interfered with a foul pop-up, forcing umpires to call the batter - Holloway - out and stranding two runners.
But Drager made the play meaningless, ending the game by getting Pollman to line out to Pokryfke in center.
"You couldn't have shaken off the nightmare (Monday) with a better performance," West Aurora coach Randy Hayslett. "We had a great approach at the plate. That was the best collective one through nine we've had. We were aggressive, we moved the ball. That's the best game we played all year hands down. That's how we need to play with our younger pitchers now. That's what we can be."
Brennan went 4-for-4 to lead South Elgin, and Pollman and Julianna Battaglia both added 2 hits.
After opening conference play with consecutive wins over St. Charles North, St. Charles East and Geneva, the Storm have lost consecutive games to Bartlett and West Aurora.
"I don't think we're as good as we played two weeks ago and we're definitely not as bad as we played here," South Elgin coach Brad Reynard said. "It's a race in the spring who can stay hottest the longest. We'll get back on track, we'll find it. We kind of opened the door back up for a few of the other teams. It's going to be a race to the finish."