Fonda, Glenbard South still waiting to heat up

Against her truer anxious instincts, Julie Fonda tells herself to stay patient with a young Glenbard South softball team.

It is March, after all.

The Raiders dropped their second game in three days to start the season, falling to Hinsdale South 4-1 on a brisk Monday afternoon in Glen Ellyn.

Glenbard South lost four starters from a team that finished third in Class 3A last year. Fonda isn't selling youth as an excuse.

"I'm tired of saying we're young," Fonda said. "They're great ballplayers. They wouldn't be on my varsity team if they weren't. We just have to find our niche. It will click one day. It's just hard to be patient."

Raiders freshman pitcher Danielle Chitkowski did well to minimize the damage of constant baserunners. Hinsdale South touched Chitkowski for 12 hits, but she stranded 7 baserunners. She struck out the side with the bases loaded in the seventh.

"That one inning, I could see it in her eyes that she wasn't going to let them score," Fonda said. "That was cool to see. I hadn't seen that from her yet."

Hinsdale South, a 20-game winner a season ago, looked sharp in its first time out. The Hornets broke ahead 2-0 in the third inning, as Ashley Kopp doubled in Michelle Bolos and scored on Kelly Payne's ground out. That was more than enough for pitchers Carly Hinni and Amy Narotsky, who combined to twirl a 4-hitter. They received strong support by the Hornets defense, Bolos making a leaping snare of a liner to second in the fourth and center fielder Julia Katsaros flagging down a pair of deep fly balls to center.

"It's a rough season at the beginning," Hinsdale South coach Carrie Nelson said, "because you're practicing indoors and the weather's crazy. But I told them their hard work is going to pay off for them. They stayed focused through the game."

A Payne bloop single with two outs in the fifth scored Bolos to make it 3-1, and Bolos singled in Dana Capocci in the seventh. Kopp went 4-for-4 and Payne 3-for-4 for the Hornets.

"It felt good. I haven't seen live pitching in a while - probably since summer," Kopp said. "It's totally different. You get a strike every time off the machine. Here you have to wait for your pitch."

Glenbard South scored its lone run in the third. With two outs Brianna Meath singled, stole second and scored on Jenny Wittenberg's single to right.

Lisle 12, Driscoll 0: The Lions tallied 4 runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings to back Bekka Houda, who struck out seven.

Morton 1, Glenbard East 0: Abby Petersdorf struck out four in a loss for the Rams.