Fremd 5, St. Viator 0
Coming off its finest regular season in school history, the Fremd softball team looked fine in the postseason, too.
With sophomore Lena Brottman firing a 2-hitter and classmates Kristine Werling and Lauren Zaworski jump-starting the offense, the Vikings shut out visiting St. Viator 5-0 in the semifinals of the Fremd Class 4A regional on Tuesday in Palatine.
No. 2 seeded Fremd (27-3), advances to the title game on Saturday at 10 a.m. against the winner of today's semifinal between No. 7 Lake Forest and No. 11 Deerfield.
Brottman (20-2), who finished with 12 strikeouts, had retired nine of 10 batters with 6 strikeouts when she got all the run support she needed in the bottom of the third.
Speedy leadoff batter Kristen Werling (2-for-4) beat out a grounder to third for a base hit, stole second scored on 2 wild pitches.
"I got a good jump on the steal," Werling said. "It's something we've been working on. You're always looking for those good jumps and good leadoffs. And when I'm on third base, I try to keep my eye on the plate."
Zaworski had her eyes well attached to the ball moments later.
After Kelly Voigt reached on an error, Zaworski clubbed a towering homer to left-center. The 2-run, one-out blast was her seventh of the season.
Zaworski is one of seven sophomores on the Vikings' roster.
"This is really a fun season with everyone picking up each other," Werling said. "It's cool."
Brottman was a cool customer as usual, giving up just a leadoff double to freshman Torey Lenart in the third and a two-out single to left by Melanie Slawny in the seventh.
"We played good defense (no errors) and Lena pitched well," said Fremd coach Jim Weaver. "We left a lot of runners on base. We executed well, but had some scoring opportunities we didn't take advantage of."
Alexa Cinquegrani (3-for-4, double) singled home Voigt in fifth for a 4-0 lead.
The Vikings had runners on first and third and one out when Viator pulled off an inning-ending double play.
Relief pitcher Julie Sweeney fielded a grounder, threw home to catcher Danielle Sipiora for one out. The talented catcher then threw to first to get the batter.
In the sixth, Zaworski added a third RBI when she singled in Werling with two outs.
"We would have liked to have come out stronger," Zaworski said. "But we kept adding some runs after we scored in the third. We just have to keep pushing from here on out."
Viator (7-23) coach Dan Twarog used three pitchers. In addition to the freshman Sweeney, he started senior Emily Catanese and replaced her with Slawny, a sophomore.
"I told the kids that maybe our record wasn't that great but this was a great team," Twarog said. "We had great kids. I would love to have this team back every season. We just need all our kids to work hard now in the offseason.
"Their pitcher (Brottman) did a nice job. She located the ball very well. Our kids were too anxious to swing. Obviously when you get only 2 hits, we were dominated by their pitcher."
Palatine 6, Grant 1: Palatine's Anne Wcislo knew what she needed to do in order to be successful on Tuesday.
"From the get-go, I have to stay focused on each pitch," Wcislo said.
"I'm one of those girls who likes to let her mind wander. Coach (Jeff Manz) came to me each inning and the girls were always there to keep me on track, and I think that's what I did to stay focused during the game. I got the pitches that I needed."
Wcislo not only stayed focused, she dominated to lead Palatine past Grant 6-1 in the semifinals of the Class 4A regional at Libertyville.
Fourth-seeded Palatine, which has won four regional championships in a row, will try to make it five in a row Saturday at 11 a.m., when it plays the winner of today's game between No. 5 Stevenson and No. 10 Libertyville.
After walking the first batter of the game, Wcislo (15-5) held No. 13 Grant hitless until two outs in the top of the seventh. C.J. Hill broke up the no-hitter with a bloop single just past first base.
Brianna Brugioni singled and Amanda Villagomez singled in Brugioni to break the shutout.
"Wcislo did a pretty nice job of working ahead of the batters," said Manz, whose Pirates are 19-8 and have won 15 of 17. "She was hitting her spots real well and I thought we played some real good defense behind her.
"Obviously our goal is to win the regional and we've had a lot of success the last four years."
Palatine scored its first run in the third as Steph Roto tripled to the right-field fence and Kelsey Griffin drove her home on a sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, the Pirates sent 9 batters to the plate to score 5 runs on 5 hits.
Katie Mnichowicz singled in a run, Griffin (3 RBI) slammed a 2-run double, Caitlin Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly, and Joanne Jablonski singled in a run.
-- Irv Solomon
Barrington 10, Waukegan 1: Junior ace Kim Cygan (25-6) threw a 5-hitter with 6 strikeouts as top-seeded Barrington (26-6) advanced to Saturday's 10 a.m. championship of the Zion-Benton regional against the winner of today's semifinal between No. 9 Buffalo Grove and the No. 8 host Zee-Bees.
Michal Jane Maropis and Jessica McGurn each had home runs for the Mid-Suburban League champs.
Colleen Shandley (4-for-5, 3 runs), Lindsey Dulla (3-for-4, 2 runs) and Devinne Wapotish (2-for-3, 4 RBI) were top hitters.
Elk Grove 7, Glenbard E. 1: Hall of Fame coach Ken Grams watched his Grenadiers post their fourth 30-win season in 29 years as sophomore Stephanie Maday (19-4) threw a 4-hitter in the Willowbrook regional semifinal.
The Grens were led on offense by Amanda Mertes (3-for-3, 2 runs), Stephanie Dolce (2-for-4, double), Nikki Goranson (2-for-3, double, 2 RBI) and Jessica Balzano (2-for-4, double, RBI). Brittany Tranchita also doubled for the MSL East champs.
The Grens (30-5) will play for the regional title Saturday at 10 a.m. against the winner of today's semifinal between No. 6 Glenbard West (6) and No. 11 Wheaton North.
Maine W. 11, Von Steuben 0: Emily Ott (4-for-4, 2 triples) tossed a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks for the No. 2 seeded Warriors (22-7) at the Class 4A Glenbrook North regional.
The Warriors were led on offense by Nicole Eisenberg (2-for-2, double), Jenna Depa (2-for-3) and Jillian Ellwood (3-for-3).
West will meet the winner of today's semifinal between the host No. 8 Spartans (8) and No. 10 Niles North at 10 a.m. Saturday for the title.
Lake Park 3, Meadows 1:ΠLake Park senior Missy Mazur pitched 7 strong innings and drove in 3 runs as the second-seeded Lancers won their 15th straight game with a 3-1 win over No. 15 seed Rolling Meadows in the Rolling Meadows regional semifinal.
Mazur, who struck out 7 while allowing 7 hits and 2 walks, had to work hard as Meadows opened five innings with a hit. However, Mazur (20-4) was able to buckle down and make pitches when she needed to.
"That's Missy for you, she's going to battle," Lake Park coach Cray Allen said. "When things get tough, she gets better. She gets a little more focused, she digs down and kind of concentrates on what's happening."
Mazur went 3-for-3 at the plate and helped herself with two big hits. Lynsey Ciezki scored on Mazur's third-inning single that gave the Lancers a 1-0 lead. She added a 2-run single in the fifth, driving in Carly Willert (3-for-3) and Vicki Tomaka.
Jamie Pomahac, Alyssa Robison and Samantha Becker each added hits for Lake Park (29-4), which will play the winner of Schaumburg and Prospect on Saturday.
Meadows, which had won 8 of 10 coming into Tuesday, put a scare into the Lancers in the final two innings. After Maddy Urban hit a homer to left leading off the sixth, Caitlin Adair worked a full-count walk and Angela Mahanna almost tied the game with a deep fly to center. With one out, Mary Loughery (2-for-3) singled to left before Mazur retired the next two batters.
"We thought we could win it from the start," Urban said. "They're a good team but when we play our best, we almost beat them."
In the seventh, the Mustangs (14-16) had runners on second and third with two outs after Kelly Keyzer walked and Urban hit a double. Adair smashed a hard grounder up the middle but Mazur fielded the ball and threw to first for the final out.
"I thought pretty much the whole game we had opportunities to score and had kids at second base," said Meadows coach Tony Wolanski. "We had 7 hits off her but we just didn't get any luck."
--Joe Esse
Bartlett 5, Hoffman 1: For teams to advance in the playoffs it takes a lot more then individual talent.
On a breezy Tuesday afternoon on their home field, the Bartlett Hawks (27-6) got outstanding pitching, great defense, and timely hitting for a total team 5-1 victory over Hoffman Estates.
Bartlett pitcher Lauren Wydra recorded 7 strikeouts.
The bottom of the first saw the Bartlett bats give Wydra the lead by scoring 2 runs on two outs. Rachel Anello had a 3-run double in the third.
It was a gritty effort by Hoffman (11-20-1), which didn't go unnoticed by coach Lindsey Hamma.
"I am proud of these girls," said Hamma. "They really stepped up and competed this year."