Softball: St. Edward falls to Ridgewood

St. Edward's loss to Ridgewood was not as one-sided as the 11-4 final score might indicate. The game was tied 3-3 after four innings, but the Rebels' powerful bats finally broke through in the final three frames.

Those bats got quite a bit of help from the Green Wave, which committed 8 errors in the Metro Suburban softball matchup at the Elgin Sports Complex Tuesday.

Sarah Mendoza doubled in Ella O'Neill to tie the game in the fourth. The Rebels regained the lead in the top of the fifth thanks to 3 walks and 2 errors. They loaded the bases with 1 out, but Caroline Lipski hit a comebacker to Chloe Davies, who started a nifty 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.

But the Rebels then broke the game wide open in the sixth.

The Rebels smacked 4 straight hits to open the inning, 5 in all, and scored 5 times. They added 3 more in the seventh to put the game on ice.

The Rebels (15-3), who include 6 seniors on their roster, routinely roll up double-digit runs, including a 25-0 blowout on Monday.

"They're a deeper team and deeper teams, somehow late in the game, they often adapt," said St. Edward coach Erv Gernand. "They didn't bash it today. They hit OK but they didn't kill us with their hitting. Our pitching was fine today."

Ridgewood starting pitcher Natalie Tomasik kept the Green Wave (7-7, 5-5) off-balance for four innings, but was not unhittable. Jessy Kramp singled in a run in the first after the Rebels had taken a 1-0 lead. Mendoza led off with a walk. Lindsey Mauritzen forced Mendoza and, after a walk to Ashley Miller, Mauritzen stole third. Kramp then beat out a grounder to deep short, allowing Mauritzen to score.

Ridgewood scored twice more in the second. The Wave got one back when Hannah Dorley's triple leading off the bottom half turned into a run thanks to an overthrow at third.

Mendoza had 2 of the Wave's 5 hits in support of starting pitcher Davies. Annalise Avila reached base all 3 times up with a single and 2 walks, leading to 2 runs.

Davies was charged with 8 runs in 6 innings, but 3 of them were unearned. Dorley finished in the circle for the Wave.

Ridgewood's cleanup hitter, Kathleen Lorscheider, had 3 hits, including a triple, and scored 3 times. She also pitched the final 3 innings to earn the save.