South Elgin 4, Elgin 0
Rebecca French has been telling her aunt, former Streamwood multi-sport star Renee Kanak, how cool it would be to play softball on graduation day.
Now, French and her South Elgin teammates will get that opportunity, as well as a chance to win the school's first regional championship in any team sport.
French fired a no-hitter Tuesday and South Elgin took advantage of its opportunities to beat Elgin 4-0 in the semifinals of the Class 4A Streamwood regional. The top-seeded Storm (21-10) will meet the winner of today's DeKalb-Streamwood game at 11 a.m. Saturday for the regional championship and a place in next week's Machesney Park Harlem sectional. The game time is subject to change based on the participating schools' graduation times.
"It's going to be a great weekend," said French, a senior who raised her record to 11-5 for the season. "Friday is my birthday (No. 18) and Saturday we get to play for a regional championship and graduate. It's going to be a lot of fun."
South Elgin had defeated Elgin 10-0 and 9-1 during the regular season but the Maroons (3-24) were riding high after eliminating Larkin in Monday's play-in game, and they played the Storm tough.
"We had lost to them by a collective score of 19-1 so to come back and play them this tough … it's a good feeling that we went down fighting," said Elgin coach Peg Corcroan, who only started 2 seniors Tuesday. "We're a young team and we told the kids it's what they do between now and March that will make a difference next year."
South Elgin broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning against Elgin sophomore Kelly Patchett, who allowed just 6 hits. Courtney Bosteder drew a leadoff walk and went to second when Elgin made an error on Stephanie Sanocki's grounder. Tegan O'Connor sacrificed the runners to second and third and Alyssa Krause's groundout to second scored Bosteder with the first run. Sanocki then came home on a double to right field by No. 9 hitter Cary Thereon.
The Storm added 2 runs in the fifth when Lauren Vitiello cranked a two-out double to right-center just ahead of Bosteder launching a 2-run bomb over the center field fence.
The rest was left to French, who has been nursing a sore arm the past few weeks. She struck out 13 and was only a walk, a hit batter and an error from a perfect game, just three days after beating the Maroons 9-1.
"When she's rested and healthy she's one of the strongest pitchers in the area," said Storm coach Jason Schaal. "She's had some tightness in the arm and we rested her some but she came out real strong. And Tegan calls her own game and she did a great job if it today.
"To get a no-hitter in a regional game will really boost (French's) confidence. I'm happy for her. She's pitched some good games for us and today was one of the best."
Said French: "I was a little nervous about pitching against Elgin so soon again but I came out super strong today."
Elgin did have a good chance to score in the fourth, when the game was still tied. With two outs, Caris Alan reached on a throwing error and Patchett was hit with a pitch. But just when Jenna Jaynes' grounder up the middle appeared to be headed into center field, Bosteder made a diving stop and reached second just in time for the force.
"You have to score to win and we didn't score," said Corcoran.