OK, go: Raiders steal away with sectional title
A softball team with Illinois' career stolen base leader coaching third is a team looking to take the extra base.
Amanda Straka took it and ran.
Green-lighted by Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda, Straka scored from second on a wild pitch in the Raiders' 1-0 victory over Riverside-Brookfield on Saturday in the Class 3A Glenbard South sectional final.
Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Straka beat out an infield hit, then stole second. The junior left fielder was there with two outs and catcher Jess Fijolek at bat.
Bulldogs pitcher Emma Forsberg delivered a pitch in and in the dirt, skipping to the backstop. R-B's catcher couldn't locate the ball.
Straka scrambled into third. Fonda saw an opening.
"As soon as (Straka) was coming to the base I told her, 'The catcher can't find it.' " Fonda said. "She rounded and I saw the pitcher take off after it and I yelled, 'Go,' and she just took off."
No hesitation.
"Not at all," Straka said. "I hit the base and I ran.
"She said that as soon as I hit the bag," Straka said. "She's like, 'She can't find it.' I was like, 'OK, gone.' "
Fonda, who stole 208 bases at Glenbard South from 1993-96, said: "That's great instinct. We work on those types of things, though. That's our type of ballgame."
Aggressive baserunning, tight defense, sharp pitching. All accounted for to send Glenbard South to its second straight supersectional, 4 p.m. Monday against Oak Forest at Glenbard South.
Top-seeded Glenbard South (27-6) -- which could have kicked itself for not scoring when Forsberg (13-3) walked the bases full in the first -- pulled out the defense in the top of the fourth.
April Hutchens led off with a double for No. 2 seed Riverside-Brookfield (24-9). Glenbard South pitcher Jill Trzaska struck out the next batter but hit the one following.
Then R-B's Michelle Demitro cracked a single into right center. Raiders center fielder Nikki Simpson ran it down and threw home. Fijolek tagged Hutchens on the hook slide.
"I was like, 'Thanks, babe, for saving my life,' " Simpson said. "Without that tag she might have been safe. It was a really close play."
Mixing fastball, changeup and location, Trzaska (19-2) struck out 10 and allowed 4 hits. The senior right-hander stranded a runner at second in the sixth and retired R-B in order in the seventh.
Riverside-Brookfield coach Dan Hull shouldered blame for the loss. He said the costly play, which tarnished Forsberg's 3-hitter, was an intentional walk gone awry.
"If I would have just let her pitch to her maybe we would have got her out," Hull said.