Softball: Lake Park frustrates Naperville Central again
It was yet another tough DuPage Valley Conference softball loss for Naperville Central, but Lake Park was not about to feel sorry for the Redhawks on Friday.
The way Lancers coach Tom Mazzie sees it, his team was due for a break or two, and that's what they got in knocking off the visiting Redhawks 6-4 in DuPage Valley Conference play in Roselle.
A scoreless pitchers' duel turned into a big lead for Lake Park when the home team took advantage of a bases-loaded throwing error to tally six times in the bottom of the fifth. Naperville Central (11-8, 4-4) countered with four runs of its own in the sixth but still dropped its fourth, heartbreaking DVC contest.
"That was nice," Mazzie said after his team improved to 3-5 in the DVC and 7-11 overall. "I felt like what happened to them is kind of how our season's been going. We get second and third, they walk a girl intentionally to the load the bases, which is a smart play. Then they get a grounder to third, but then it's just a tough throw, and maybe it's wet.
"All of a sudden it goes from cold weather and no one wants to hit, to now everybody's excited and they start hitting."
The error allowed the first two runs of the game to score, but Lake Park was not done. After another intentional walk reloaded the bases, Abby Rodriguez lined a single up the middle to make it a 4-0 game, and Natalie Grubczak followed with a double to the gap in right-center. Just like that a scoreless tie turned into a 6-run advantage.
"I was just thinking that my teammates did a good job of getting on … and I was thinking about us taking advantage of mistakes and about getting my runners home to help my team," said Grubczak, who went 2-for-3. "Oh yeah (we got fired up). As soon as that happened, we all got into it. This team is super crazy and we like to keep it fun and loose in the dugout."
The outburst made a winner of sophomore pitcher Abbey Frank, who allowed just two hits and no runs before walking three Redhawks to open the sixth. Reliever Briana Pisauro then had the unenviable task of entering the game with the bases loaded. She walked in one run, allowed an RBI single to Katie Gutsell, and two more runs came home on a groundout and a sacrifice fly, but Pisauro closed out the win.
"It was a very strange game because it was a great game and then it was an ugly game," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum, whose team has now dropped four conference games by either one run or two. "You see today how the game totally changes when the other team gets momentum. There's no reason for them to get the extra four (runs). We have to play better defensively."
The one rough inning made a tough-luck loser of Redhawks pitcher Halle Arends, who struck out 12 and allowed seven hits over seven innings.
"We get four runs, so even if they get two more after the bad play it's still 4-4. Our four conference defeats have unearned runs in every one, and we lost by 2, 2, 1 and 1," Nussbaum said.