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Softball: Evers goes deep twice as Libertyville routs Mundelein

An errant tennis ball from a nearby boys tennis practice briefly interrupted the Libertyville-Mundelein softball game Tuesday afternoon.

"Time!" an umpire barked as a tennis ball - yellow, like a softball - came to a halt in the top of the first inning after a couple of bounces in shallow right field at Mundelein.

The score of the North Suburban Conference clash was 0-0 at the time.

Or, in tennis parlance, love-love.

"I laughed when I saw that ball out there," said Libertyville third baseman Maggie Evers, who has never played tennis but knows at least one of the objectives of the sport.

"Keep the ball in the court," the Wildcat, sporting a wide smile, added.

As opposed to softball, where it's a very good thing to blast a ball over a fence. Evers did that twice Tuesday - once in the Wildcats' 2-run first inning and again in her team's resounding 7-run sixth inning - in Libertyville's 15-4 victory on a brisk spring day.

Evers' first round-tripper was a 2-run shot to open the scoring, and her solo homer increased the lead to 9-4 and preceded 2-run homers by second baseman Sarah Bennett and Amanda Page, the winning pitcher.

Both Evers and Wildcats coach Elissa Wisniewski praised the first-inning at-bat by LHS left fielder and No. 2 hitter Julia Zinkewich, who fouled off a slew of pitches from Mustangs hurler Kira Buckner before drawing a walk.

Evers, the No. 3 hitter, ripped the first pitch she saw over the fence in center field.

"Julia," Evers said, "worked so hard to get on base. I then went into attack-mode."

"Julia," Wisniewski added, "came up huge for us, set the tone for us. She made their pitcher work hard and throw a lot of pitches in the first inning."

Libertyville improved to 19-7, 11-1 in the NSC; Mundelein fell to 12-9, 7-3. Libertyville was the "home" team at Mundelein on Tuesday because of a venue change.

The Wildcats' win avenged their 2-1 loss to the Mustangs on April 18. Before becoming a superhero in a softball costume Tuesday, Evers, along with some friends, watched Avengers: Endgame at the outdoor movie theater in McHenry last month.

"Yes, I enjoyed it," said Evers, who first homered twice in a game several years ago. "My favorite character in the movie is Thor. Funny. He's funny."

The serious debate: a hammer-wielding Thor vs. a bat-gripping Evers. Who's more powerful?

Too close to call.

Libertyville's animated dugout provided a boost for the Wildcats' batters all afternoon. More than a few Cook County residents must have heard some of the encouraging chirps and screams emanating from a certain softball field in Lake County.

"We did a great job of keeping our energy up throughout the game," said Wisniewski, whose NSC-leading squad has notched a pair of 1-run wins over perennial power Warren this spring.

"We came in knowing our games with Mundelein are always tough ones. The loss to Mundelein earlier was on their minds; it had to be. We had something to prove today, and it was fun to get the season split. I liked our excitement level and how well we executed."

Libertyville finished with 8 extra-base hits to Mundelein's 3.

Mustangs outfielder Cheyenne Pellettiere (3-for-3, 4 RBI) struck 2 of them, including a 3-run homer (her third HR of the season) in Mundelein's 3-run sixth inning. She had belted a one-out double off the fence in center in the second frame and drove in the Mustangs' first run with a two-out single to right field two innings later.

Libertyville's Page (6 IP, 3 ER, 3 Ks 1 BB) doubled home a run in the fifth before ending the game (10-run mercy rule) with her 2-run big fly in the sixth. Charlotte Lynch's run-scoring triple in the sixth missed HR-status by a few inches. Katie Jahncke and Ella Zombolo (RBI) also doubled for the victors.

Zinkewich reached base in each of her first three at-bats (BB, RBI single, bunt single). Wildcats shortstop Aliya Haddon's run-scoring single in the bottom of the second inning upped the advantage to 5-0.

Mustangs third baseman Tess McKay doubled ahead of Pellettiere's homer.

Mundelein was coming off a 5-4 loss to Stevenson on Monday.

"We hit the ball well (Tuesday), hit a lot of line drives," Mustangs coach Heather Ryan said. "Good, solid contact - that's one of my take-aways from this game."

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