St. Edward bats cage Lisle with big 1st inning

A little more than a week ago, St. Edward's softball team won its first game of the season.

For not having seen live pitching in more than a week, hitting in the cages paid off.

St. Edward came out swinging, capitalizing on 3 first-inning errors en route to a 5-run first and a 9-1 win over Lisle in a nonconference game at the Elgin Sports Complex.

With St. Edward (2-0) up 1-0 in the first on an infield single by Kelly Knott, Megan Pozezinski reached base on a throwing error.

After Jackie Todd's walk loaded the bases, Stephanie Werner came to the plate and skidded a grounder to second. Though the ball was fielded cleanly, the throw to first was wide, allowing two Green Wave runners to score.

Another throwing error on Megan Tourtellott's grounder to third allowed 2 additional runs to score. St. Edward was up 5-0, Lisle (0-2) digging itself a first-inning hole the Lions couldn't climb out of.

"When you open the first inning with 4 errors, it's kind of hard for any pitcher to come back," said Lions coach Jen Pomatto.

"A little bit of that is because how young we are. We're going to make those kind of mistakes. When the floodgates open, it's kind of hard to come back."

St. Edward tacked on 3 more runs in the second. Kristina Brockner capped off the inning with a 2-run triple that sailed over right fielder Jessica Clark and headed toward the fence.

"The girls were sick and tired of being inside, we wanted to get out there and show what we could do as team. We've been really working hard," said Pozezinski, who went 1-for-3 and reached based on an error.

Up 7 runs, Green Wave pitcher Sarah Field had all the cushion she needed. She pitched 3 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, walking two batters and striking out two to earn the win. Erin McGraw came in for relief and pitched 4 scoreless innings.

"We've got a couple great pitchers. Sarah pitched again great. For a freshman to do what she did, I thought she had a great game. She didn't have her best stuff, but she had great control and poise on the mound," said St. Edward coach Mike Rolando.

Colleen Drennan accounted for 3 of Lisle's 5 hits, going 3-for-3 with a double and a triple in the loss.