Hawks down Storm in UEC

The Bartlett Hawks and South Elgin Storm softball teams braved the cold, windy day Tuesday as they opened Upstate Eight Conference play with a pitcher's duel.

And, with Lauren Wydra pitching a complete game shutout, the Hawks (3-1, 1-0) got all they needed in the second as Concetta Lampugnano led the bottom half of the inning off with a mammoth home run over the left field fence, helping Bartlett to a 4-0 victory.

"It felt good," Lampugnano said of her second career homer at the varsity level. "It felt pretty good when it hit the bat. I knew it was gone."

With the 2-0 lead, the Hawks added some insurance in the fifth after Wydra battled out of the Storm's best chance in the top half of the inning.

Steph Jones led the inning off with a walk while Elizabeth Kay followed up reaching on an error after rocketing a shot off the Storm shortstop.

A walk later to Callie Dennison gave Rachel Anello bases loaded and one gone as she drove in Alyssa Taormina (running for Jones) and Kay on a single to right.

"Lumpy (Lampugnano) got a good home run pitch in the second and Rachel Anello had a nice one-out hit," said Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith. "They're starting to get good timely hits."

In the top half of the inning, Stephanie Sanocki got on with a single and reached second on a throwing error while Kimberly Pierce followed up with a single and stole second giving the Storm (1-1, 0-1) two runners in scoring position.

However, Wydra finished the inning striking out Lauren Vitiello right after the steal.

"We get a hit there and the score's 2-2 and anything can happen," said Storm coach Jason Schaal. "We had some chances. We got some runners on. But I think we played really well."

The Storm stranded runners in six of its seven innings at the plate while leaving runners in scoring position in four.

Wydra finished the game with 7 strikeouts, one in each inning, while giving up 7 hits and giving up only 1walk while her defense committed 2 errors.

"I think we all played together today," Wydra said. "South Elgin is a good hitting team."

The Hawks scored their second run in the third as Wydra knocked in Taormina off of Storm pitcher Rebecca French, who finished the game with 7 strikeouts, allowing 5 hits and walking 3.