St. Charles East hands Burlington 2nd straight loss
St. Charles East softball coach Kelly Barnett calls junior pitcher Gabby Moe a "quiet battler".
But on Saturday morning at Burlington Central, Moe and the Saints made some noise, and quieted struggling Burlington Central in the process.
Moe tossed a 3-hitter and the Saints took advantage of what the Rockets gave them, dealing BC a 3-2 nonconference loss. It's the first time since late March of 2007 that Burlington has lost 2 in a row.
"She worked herself into some jams and she worked herself out of some jams," Barnett said of Moe, who struck out seven and walked four as the Saints moved to 4-3 for the season.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Rebecca Reinbold drew a one-out walk from BC senior Mackenzie Scott - one of 6 free passes Scott issued on the day to go with 8 strikeouts - went to second on Jenny Niemic's single and then scored on a throwing error off of RaeAnne Payleitner's ground ball.
But the Rockets (4-3) came right back to tie. Scott drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the third, Jet Kein sacrificed courtesy runner Kelsey Nieds to second and she scored when the Saints misplayed Brittany Priest's two-out fly ball.
St. Charles East got to Scott for the game-winning runs in the sixth. Rachael Edwards drew a leadoff walk and pinch-runner Claire Desrosiers then went to second on a passed ball and scored on Kayla Brooks' line drive double to right. Brooks took third on another passed ball and after Bethany Carrignan walked, pinch-hitter Casey Driessen sent an RBI single up the middle, chasing Scott from the circle. Kein came in and got out of the jam for the Rockets but the damage was done.
Burlington battled back to make it a 3-2 game in the bottom of the inning. Lindsay Lange led off with a triple and scored on Abby Morrow's sacrifice fly. But in the bottom of the seventh, when BC got a one-out single from Kein and she moved to second on Kayla Oranger's groundout, Moe toughened up and got Priest to ground out to first to end the game.
"You just have to go after them," Moe said. "I know my team will back me up. This is a great win for us. We know we have a lot of tough games coming up and this gives us a lot of confidence."
For the Rockets it was another disappointing day for a team that came into the season with high expectations and now heads into Big Northern East play on Tuesday by hosting a veteran Marengo team that rolled over Kaneland 7-1 on Saturday.
"We've got people who have been here for four years and we're not getting consistent play from anyone right now," said Rockets' coach Scot Sutherland. "We've got seven people back and it's their team. They have to decide what they want this season to be. We have too many people back to allow what we've been allowing."