Bartlett upset in 12th inning
Glenbard North's softball team had one word in mind during in its Class 4A Bartlett regional final against Bartlett: believe.
The eighth-seeded Panthers (18-11) knew it wasn't favored to beat the top seed, but they believed long enough, all 12 innings worth. In the 12th, it paid off. With runners on the corners with one out in a 2-2 game, Elisabeth Walter had two options: hitting for a basehit if the infield played in, or bunting if they played back.
She saw the Hawks (27-7) playing back, not ready for what was next.
Walter laid down the suicide squeeze to perfection, which couldn't find a glove down the first-base line, allowing Walter to reach base safely. Bri DiGioia, charging from third, scored, giving Glenbard North the lead and the regional championship in 12 innings, 3-2.
"We were expecting balls to be hit on the ground, balls to be hit somewhere," said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith. "She had to bunt in a good spot, and it was a hard-hit play. We were expecting something else and going home with it."
"This was by far one of the best games I've ever been apart of. Both teams played excellent," Panthers coach Josh Sanew said. "Beautiful team win. Whenever we play together as a team, we're tough to beat. I am so proud of them."
Dennison and Nicole Beck both went 2-for-4 for the Hawks.
"It was a great season, but when they're done being sad they're going to look back on say what a great season we had and how much fun we had," Wolfsmith said.
-- Steve Nichols
South Elgin 9, DeKalb 0: South Elgin finally has some IHSA hardware to hang on the wall.
The Storm earned the school's first regional championship, and plaque, by defeating DeKalb, 9-0, in the title game of the Class 4A Streamwood regional.
"It's crazy," Storm senior Rebecca French said. "I'm really proud of our team. I knew we could do it."
South Elgin, with its first senior class, used a dominating pitching performance from French and late-inning offense to advance to the Machesney Park Harlam sectional. The Storm (22-10) will play Rockford Boylan at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the sectional semifinals. Woodstock and Crystal Lake South play in the other semifinal.
"I'm happy, don't get me wrong, but I just told them we've got a couple more games to go," Storm coach Jason Schaal said. "I don't want to be satisfied with the regional and be done."
French (12-5) struck out six of the first seven batters she faced. She allowed only two hits and four baserunners. Kristen Roenfanz had a fourth-inning single and Lisa Oller had a seventh-inning double for the hits for the Barbs (17-12). French finished with 11 strikeouts.
French has 24 strikeouts and allowed two hits in 14 innings in two postseason games.
"I have a totally different mindset now. I don't know what it is," French said. "Maybe it's because I'm a senior and when I lose, I'm done."
Oller (13-6) kept the Storm off the scoreboard in the opening two innings, but South Elgin started to hit the ball hard the second, third and fourth times through the order.
Lauren Vitiello drove in Caitlin Stredde with a run-scoring single in the third to give the Storm a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, Katelyn Stonecipher's RBI single increase the lead to 2-0.
South Elgin broke the game open in the fifth. Stredde and Kim Pierce opened the inning with singles. After a sacrifice fly moved Stredde to third, Courtney Bosteder laid down a squeeze bunt to bring in Stredde. Layla Ismajlaj's RBI double and Tegan O'Connor's RBI sacrifice fly gave South Elgin a 5-0 lead.
"We normally have a rough couple of innings," said Pierce, a junior. "We learned (Oller's) pitches. She was throwing a lot inside. We just adjusted."
The Storm added four more runs in the sixth. Pierce, who went 3-for-4, drove in two with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. Vitiello also had an RBI double in the inning.
Stredde had three hits and scored three times for the Storm. Stonecipher, Vitiello and Ismajlaj each had two hits.
"One through nine we can hit the ball," Schaal said. "Once we got the timing on it, the bats started opening it up."
-- Brian Schaumburg
Baseball
Lincoln-Way East 25, West Aurora 6: After winning two playoff games, the Blackhawks' season ended in the finals of the Hinsdale Central regional. The sixth-seeded Griffins' just had too much offense for West Aurora to handle.
With a final season record of 18-17, the Blackhawks recorded their third-highest win total in the last ten years. Coach John Reeves expressed his optimism for the future as he pointed out the "strong nucleus of juniors" such as Cory Walden, Chris Richter, and Brady Renner.
Wheaton Academy 5, Nazareth Academy 2:ŒThe No. 9 Warriors knocked off former PSL rival and top-seeded Nazareth to win the Nazareth Academy Regional. Eric Albaugh was the winning pitcher. Wheaton Academy returns to action on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Nazareth Academy Sectional against Riverside-Brookfield.