Rolling Meadows connection sparks East victory
Monday night's Mid-Suburban League Senior softball All-Star Game at the Fields of Dreams in Barrington featured quite a turn of events from previous years.
After five straight contests without scoring a run, the East squad erupted for 9 to edge the West 9-8 in the 15th annual showcase event.
Rolling Meadows' Connie Porters (2-for-3) narrowly beat the throw to first base on her single to right with two outs in the bottom of ninth to drive in Stephanie Rudolfi (2-for-3, double) for the game-winning run.
Porters, who earned the Nancy Frisk award as the Most Valuable Player of the game, also led off the bottom of the third with a double to right and came home two outs later on teammate Bonnie Weglarz' double to right-center.
The Rolling Meadows connection was further enhanced as Mustangs coach Tony Wolanski was in the third-base coach's box when his two players combined for the run that gave the East the 5-0 lead.
Wolanski was also coaching third for Porters' game-winning hit.
"Maybe he was our good-luck charm out there," said Porters, who also made a terrific backhanded stab of a grounder by Conant's Lauren Erkman in the bottom the sixth and threw to first baseman Mary Kate Ward (RBI single in the second) for the third out.
"It felt great (winning hit)," said Porters, who plans to study psychology at Eastern Illinois. "Actually, I was hoping I would be up in that spot. I thought it would be exciting and that I could get that hit."
The West rallied from the 5-0 deficit and went ahead 7-5 in the top of the eighth, getting RBI singles from Steph Roto of Palatine, Schaumburg's Meghan Fielmann (bunt) and Palatine's Nikki Linares (2-for-3).
The East answered with 3 runs in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to consecutive RBI singles from Elk Grove's Amy Charewicz, Carly Speidel of Wheeling and Hersey's Danielle Gore.
Speidel (2-for-3) pitched the first 3 innings, striking out four and facing just nine batters without allowing a run.
Prospect's Sheri Weidner (1-for-2) pitched the middle three innings, giving up no runs and only 1 hit.
Mallory Donoghue of Hersey got the win, throwing the final 3 innings.
"It was really fun playing with these girls from the other teams," said Speidel, who will attend Illinois Wesleyan. "I came to my sister's (Katie) game last year and it was really low-scoring (3-0), so this was really surprising."
Elk Grove's Kayla Mahoney (2-for-3) belted a towering double off the fence in left-center to start the winning rally in the bottom of the ninth.
Buffalo Grove's Katie Lee (1-for-2) and Prospect's Cyndi Becker each threw runners out trying to steal second, with Prospect shortstop Amy Varner making the tags.
Palatine's Caitlin Carpenter had 2 hits for the West.
Mid-Suburban League senior All-Star Game
MSL East 9, MSL WEst 8
MSL West 000 000 431 --8-14-4
MSL East 041 000 031 --9-14-2
2b: East: Weglarz (RM), Porters (RM), Rudolfi (BG), Mahoney (EG)
WP: Donoghue; LP: Gustafson