Vernon Hills bows out vs. Marengo
Anastasia Guletsky maintained a smile, refusing to let her emotions to get the best of her.
Jackie Allen wasn't about to bawl, either, or even let tears well in her eyes.
The two Vernon Hills seniors will attend the University of Illinois in the fall, but neither will play competitive softball. They saw their high school careers come to end Saturday, as Marengo scored an unearned run in the third inning to edge the top-seeded Cougars 1-0 in the teams' Class 3A sectional final at Richmond-Burton.
"They're ticked off," Vernon Hills coach Paul Weber said of his players. "They're too angry to be (crying)."
Maybe the tears would spill later.
"I don't cry much," said Allen, barely emotional after the Cougars lost for just the seventh time in 2008. "I'm kind of a stone."
The way Marengo pitcher Sarah Steinmann was throwing, she may as well have been firing pebbles.
The senior right-hander, who pitched a 2-hit shutout in the Indians' sectional-semifinal win over Johnsburg, used a screwball to help limit Vernon Hills (30-7) to just 4 singles. She struck out five and walked one, as No. 2 seed Marengo (26-11) earned a berth in Monday's 4 p.m. supersectional against either Trinity or Elmwood Park back at Richmond-Burton.
"I knew I wasn't going to get many strikeouts against a team like this," Steinmann said. "My defense just had to be ready. When they know I have my confidence in them, and I know they have their confidence in me, it makes it a lot easier out there for all of us."
The game's only error proved costly. With one out in the top of the third, ninth-place hitter Kelly Dettman of Marengo bunted in front of the plate.
Allen, who allowed only 4 hits herself, raced in from the circle to grab the ball but winged it over the head of first baseman Jessica Schwartz. Dettman wound up on second. One out later, Hallisey Kunde's half-swing, perfectly placed infield single scored the game's only run.
"(Dettman's bunt) popped up and then I thought it was going to spin one way and it didn't," said Allen, who won a school-record 19 games and lost only four. "So I was off balance when I got to the ball, and I threw it over (Schwartz's) head."
Vernon Hills never advanced a base runner past second base. Guletsky (2-for-3) led off the last of the seventh with an infield single, and pinch runner Sara Doerhoefer raced to second on Megan Kubacki's sacrifice bunt.
But Steinmann got the final two outs on a strikeout and groundball to first. Marci Pasquesi and Kubacki had the Cougars' only other hits.
"She threw a lot of movement," Guletsky said of Steinmann.
"It's a hard way to go down but I'm very proud of our team for getting this far."
Vernon Hills had swept a late-season doubleheader from Marengo. In Game 1, the Cougars beat Steinmann 3-2.
"We knew what to expect from her," Weber said. "We knew what she threw, we knew how she was going to pitch us. She just really spotted the ball well. I thought she did a great job. And they had good defense."