WW South rallies to stun St. Charles North
Down two runs with three outs to go playing in a steady drizzle, thoughts drift to dry clothes and a warm dinner.
Wheaton Warrenville South had other ideas.
Sarah Skurla's 2-run single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh capped a 3-run Tigers rally in a 6-5 win over St. Charles North on Tuesday in Wheaton.
"I was thinking we gave it a good run the entire game, played good softball - scoring a couple runs to tie it would have been a great ending," Skurla said. "But I wasn't really thinking about coming back and winning."
St. Charles North had tacked on what looked to be an insurance run in the top of the seventh on Sydney Russell's RBI single.
Meghan Sullivan reached on an infield hit to start the bottom half, and with one out Bekah Munday and Krysta Watts singled to make it a 6-5 game. Both moved up on a groundout, and Skurla lined a 1-1 offering from Amanda Ciran into right field to drive in the winning runs.
"I just wanted to get on base, keep the inning going," Skurla said. "The pitch was pretty much center. I just tried to drive it."
"I knew with our 3-4-5 hitters coming up we had a chance to score a couple runs," WW South coach Denise McCance said, "but I really wasn't thinking three. Great hitting."
WW South scored twice in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead, but St. Charles North came back with 2 runs in the top of the sixth to take the lead back. Julia Clare Plezbert, who went 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored in the game, doubled to lead off and Russell walked. Both came around to score. Taylor Russell also had 2 hits for the North Stars.
"There were a couple instances where we didn't get the ball where we needed to," St. Charles North coach April Stary said, "They got a couple hits and hits are what you need to get runs across. We had a couple mistakes in the field that cost us runs."
Julianne LaFleur (2-0) notched the win for WW South, striking out nine. Plezert's double in the sixth and Ashley Seering's RBI double in the fourth was the biggest damage off the Tigers starters.
"She hung in there," McCance said. "They have a very good hitting team."
Sullivan went 2-for-4 and Munday reached base four times with three walks for the Tigers, who won their second one-run game in four days after beating Glenbard South 2-1 on Saturday.
"I don't know when the last time we beat St. Charles North was. I know Glenbard South it was 2003," McCance said. "We'll take that. A couple good ones to get."