Softball: Dierks evens score vs. SCN with own walkoff HR
Greg Dierks isn't just Ali Dierks' softball coach, he's her dad. And as her father, Dierks said his daughter can get any dessert she wants Friday night.
That's because Ali Dierks and her Geneva teammates beat St. Charles North in about the most dramatic fashion possible. After Dierks allowed a go-ahead home run to Grace Quinn in the top of the ninth, she came up with two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth and launched a 3-run home run to win 5-3.
It was Dierks' seventh home run of the season and by far the most memorable.
"Going up there I wasn't thinking I was going to do that," Dierks said. "I was ready to put my swing on it and hit the ball hard and whatever happens happens. Good things happen when you put the ball in play and hit it hard. I went up there with all the confidence I could."
What made Dierks' game-winner even sweeter is that it came four days after she allowed a walkoff home run to St. Charles North's Mary Webb in a 3-2 loss.
"We'll call it even," joked Greg Dierks.
St. Charles North starter Jillian Waslawski fell behind Dierks 2-0. As Waslawski and her catcher Quinn talked things over, Greg Dierks and Ali Dierks also huddled up.
The coach remembered a 2-0 count earlier in a key situation on Katie Geary and Waslawski was able to jam Geary inside. Ali Dierks backed off the plate and looked for an inside pitch.
"That (2-0) was a big deal because I knew she had to give me a good pitch sometime," Ali Dierks said. "I was looking right where she threw it. She was getting me inside most of the game so I was assuming she was going there again. If it was outside I was going to let it go and if it was inside I was ready to turn on it."
Bella Walton, who doubled to start the inning, and Katie Keller scored ahead of Dierks.
Keller put Geneva (17-5, 10-3 in the Upstate Eight River) ahead 2-0 in the second inning with a 2-run double to plate Carissa Bombardiere and Walton who had both singled. Keller reached base all five at-bats on 2 hits, 2 intentional walks and getting hit by a pitch.
St. Charles North (11-7, 8-4) tied the game in the fourth. Ashlyn Jozefowicz singled and Alyssa Eby followed with a 2-run homer.
Dierks and Waslawski traded scoreless innings from there to the ninth. Quinn led off the ninth with her first home run of the year.
"I was struggling at the plate a little earlier so I was just trying to get a base hit," Quinn said. "Geneva is a good team, they always put up a good fight and we knew we had to come out focused and precise in everything we do and I think we did a god job of all of that. Sometimes the ball doesn't fall where you want it to fall."
The North Stars put the next two runners on base after Quinn's home run but couldn't add to their lead, in part because Geneva's catcher Keller picked a runner off second base.
"It was a great matchup, 16 great innings of softball," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "Like tournament softball where every pitch is important. That was a great game."
Ali Dierks fanned 7 and walked 2, scattering 6 hits to improve to 10-3.
"We've had a lot of good games with them the last 3, 4 years, they are very competitive," Greg Dierks said. "They are tough. Jillian does a great job on the mound."