South Elgin spoils Geneva's opener

For the first time on dirt this season, the South Elgin softball team did pretty well in its first game of the season against Geneva.

The Storm posted 12 hits and played errorless ball in their 5-2 win over the Vikings in Geneva Thursday.

"We've been practicing on the pavement a lot and in the gym, so thankfully, Geneva's field was ready to go," South Elgin coach Jason Schaal said. "I'm very happy with the performance. They are a good team. They are an excellent group of young ladies. I had all the confidence in the world we'd come out and play well, and we did."

"I'm so happy because we all worked so well together," added South Elgin senior Stephanie Sanocki, who finished with 2 hits, 2 stolen bases and scored twice. "I'm really stoked to be playing with this group of girls."

South Elgin's bats were in motion right away, as the Storm scored twice in the first off a pair of hits, including Courtney Bosteder's RBI double that scored Kim Pierce after she reached base on an error.

Leadoff batter Caitlin Stredde, who singled on the first pitch of the game, scored on Lauren Vitiello's groundout.

"(Scoring early) helped with any anxiety or nerves, or whatever you want to call it," Schaal said on scoring early.

Geneva, however, tied the game at 2 in the second inning on back-to-back RBI singles from No. 9 batter Danielle Caprile and leadoff batter Nikki Davis.

After that, Geneva posted just 3 scattered hits of South Elgin pitcher Rebecca French. The senior walked 2, gave up 7 hits and struck out 4 in 7 innings.

"(French) got strong in the middle of the game," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "She got sharper and mixed her speeds a bit for strikes."

The Storm (1-0) scored again in the third, thanks to another RBI from Bosteder. They posted two more insurance runs in the seventh on Pierce's RBI triple and Vitiello's RBI single.

South Elgin had 12 hits off Geneva pitcher Kristyn Ruitenberg, who finished with 7 strikeouts and no walks.

"It wasn't too bad for the first time out," Dierks said. "We had a couple people, for their first varsity game, looked very comfortable and did a nice job…I liked that our hits were spread out throughout the batting order."

Davis, Reggie Rizzo and Caprile each finished with 2 hits for the Vikings (0-1).