Green Wave 4th at Classic
St. Edward's softball team was hoping for better results Saturday at the Daily Herald Chicagoland Classic tournament it hosted at the Elgin Sports Complex.
But while the Green Wave came away 1-2 and in fourth place in the 8-team tournament, what they did gain was some valuable experience against quality competition.
St. Edward (8-6) opened the day with a 10-1 win over IMSA before falling to Illiana Christian 5-0 in the semifinals and then 3-2 to Genoa-Kingston in the third place game.
"We improved today," said St. Edward coach Mike Rolando. "Our goals are to win our conference and be playing our best ball at regional time. We played some great competition and our defense continues to impress me. We faced some great pitchers today and our hitters are continuing to gain confidence against good pitching."
The Green Wave jumped ahead of G-K 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning in the third-place game but the Cogs came back with 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie and then won it with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
St. Edward scored both of its runs on Genoa errors -- Celeste VonAhnen scoring in the second and Kristina Brockner (3-for-3) in the fifth.
But St. Edward managed only one other hit in the game off Genoa's Lindsay Decker (8 Ks), that a single by Megan Smith.
The Cogs scored the game-winning run on a single by Ashley Miller and a double by Decker, who was named to the all-tournament team along with Jami Miller.
"We had Genoa down and the girls were playing great" said Rolando, whose team opened the season with a 1-0 win over G-K. "In the second game (against Illiana), we didn't make contact and we weren't executing. We talked between games about doing the little things and we did those things against Genoa."
Erin McGraw was the tough-luck loser against the Cogs but their game-winning hit came off freshman Sarah Field.
"McGraw pitched a great game and Sarah battled but (Genoa) just had a couple timely hits late in the game," Rolando said.
In the win over IMSA, all-tournament selections Kelly Knott (3 hits, 3B) and Lea Diaz (HR, 3B) led the way for St. Edward. Kristi Knott added a double and an RBI and Megan Pozezinski had an RBI. McGraw picked up the win with 3 innings of relief work.
St. Edward had just 2 hits in the loss to Illiana, singles by Kelly Knott and Smith. Field took the loss.
Farmington won the tournament championship, beating Illiana Christian 2-0 in the title game.