Softball: Dundee-Crown beats Hampshire for 3rd straight time

Things were a little tougher this time, but Dundee-Crown found a way to beat Hampshire again.

A day after shutting out the Whip-Purs 11-0, the Chargers had to come from behind to pull out a 3-2 win Thursday.

This one was a pitchers' duel all the way between Sydney Ruggles and Katie Del Re.

Ruggles went the distance in the circle for D-C, allowing 6 hits and had 2 of her own from the batters box in the Fox Valley Conference softball win in Carpentersville.

The Chargers came from behind with 2 runs in the fifth, then cut down the potential tying run at third base in the seventh.

"That seems to be our M.O. right now," said D-C coach Tracy Beatty. "We seem to be dodging some (bullets). But what I'm super-proud of is that we played the absolute epitome of team sport today. We supported Ruggles on that mound, we came through with some singles when we needed to. Defensively, I feel like we're playing really strong behind her."

Back-to-back singles by Claire Weeks and Deanna Origer put the Chargers ahead in that big fifth inning. Kylie Ryza started it by beating out a grounder to deep short. Back-to-back walks to Hannah Gestrich and Cady English loaded the bases for Weeks and Origer. A great catch by Sarah Bowen on Alaina Azar's sinking fly ball kept it from being a bigger inning.

Hampshire took a 2-0 lead in the fourth, thanks to hard-hit doubles by Melissa Esparza and Bowen plus Mikayla Snider's sacrifice fly.

D-C got one back in the bottom half. Origer started it with a hard grounder past third base that ended up rolling all the way to the left-field fence. Origer ended up on third. One out later, she scored on Ruggles' grounder through the hole.

The Chargers' defense came up with some big plays. The biggest came in the seventh when Hampshire put the tying run on second. Delaney Rummell then rifled a single to left field, but the runner overran third base. Left-fielder English fired the ball to Weeks behind the plate, who fired to Origer to nail the runner going back to third.

Earlier, Gestrich lunged to her right to stab Bowen's grounder that seemed destined for center field.

All in all, it was a tough loss for Hampshire.

"That's the third time we've seen them this week, so we've learned from a lot of the mistakes we had on Saturday and yesterday," said Hampshire coach Kelly Wasilewski. "We hit (Ruggles) much better today, but …"