Schaumburg 7, Prospect 4
It was seventh heaven for the Schaumburg softball team, which pulled off a win as the No. 10 seed in Wednesday's semifinal of the Rolling Meadows Class 4A regional.
Scoring all their runs in the second inning, the Saxons pulled off a 7-4 victory over No. 7 Prospect.
Schaumburg (13-17), which placed fourth in the Mid-Suburban West, will face No. 2 seed Lake Park (29-4) in Saturday's 11 a.m. title game.
The Saxons, who avenged a 1-0 loss to the Knights (19-12) earlier this spring, won despite committing 6 errors.
Junior Missy Anderson earned the win as the Saxons out-hit Prospect 9-8.
"I'm thrilled," Anderson said. "I'm shaking right now I'm so excited. We were the lower seed and we were able to pull it out. This will boost our confidence."
The Knights had the confidence early as they built a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Senior Cyndi Becker and sophomore Amanda Mlikan reached on errors and scored.
Paige O'Neil (2-fo-r-4) contributed an RBI single to score Mlikan for the 2-0 lead.
Freshman Nikki Surico also had a two-out single in the inning but Anderson avoided further damage with 1 of her 3 strikeouts.
Schaumburg got its bats rolling in the second as it sent 11 batters to the plate.
"Schaumburg did a great job hitting the ball," said Prospect coach Brenda Martin, a former all-area catcher for the Saxons. "We didn't make the plays and a lot were ones we should have made."
The Saxons took advantage of 2 errors, a walk, an RBI single by freshman Brianne Lingl and a bases-loaded double by Sarah McGinn.
Lingl, Rachel Borgman, Amy Poehlmann, Nicole Chase, McGinn, Anderson and Caitlin Becker (infield single) all scored in the inning. Lingl, the Saxons leadoff batter, went 3-for-4.
"She's really stepping up," said Saxons second-year coach Erin Doyle. "She does great under pressure. She hits the ball hard."
Doyle also praised the work of Anderson, who defeated Maine West last Saturday and was wearing a face mask for the first time Thursday after seeing the Maine West pitcher take a line drive in the face.
"Missy did a great job on the mound," Doyle said. "She moved the ball around and that kept their batters thinking."
Weidner (2-for-3) had an RBI single in the fourth inning when the Knights once again took advantage of 2 errors for their final 2 runs.
"We dug ourselves too big a hole," Martin added. "We weren't able to fight back the way we are used to on a consistent basis.
"I told the kids the season was a roller coaster. We've got quite a bit of talent but we weren't able to pull it all together on a consistent basis. But I always tell them it's not the wins and losses but the memories you make and we made a lot for them.
"These kids just loved the game and it was fun to be around them."
Zion-Benton 10, BG 0 (6 innings): No. 8 seeded Buffalo Grove (19-15) had 4 hits against the No. 9 Zee-Bees, who had 2 home runs in the regional semifinal on their own diamond.
Zion-Benton will host top-seeded Barrington Saturday morning for the title.
Freshman K.C Dunne, senior Stephanie Rudolfi, junior Lexi Beuno and junior Jill Klopke, who replaced junior third baseman Meg Miller (knee injury) in the first inning had the hits for BG. It was Klopke's first varsity hit.
BG coach Laura Stock started freshman pitcher Andrea DiPrima and also used her classmates Maria Dax and Emily Begnel.