St. Charles North's big bats batter Bartlett
St. Charles North's power plan is starting to pay off.
Taylor Russell blasted a 3-run double off the fence in deep left center, highlighting a 6-run fourth inning. That was all starting pitcher Amanda Engel and the North Stars needed in a 6-1 win at Bartlett Tuesday.
Julia Clare Plezbert and Ashley Seering both added doubles. Russell, Plezbert and Seering, the North Stars' Nos. 3-5 hitters, combined to go 5 for 11 with 4 RBI and those 3 extra-base hits.
"They've got some good hitters in the middle of their lineup," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "Those girls are going to hit the ball hard if you make mistakes. We put ourselves in too many positions where their big hitters came up with a chance to hit the ball and hurt us."
North Stars coach April Stary wanted more pop from the middle of the lineup this season. She's starting to see it.
"We worked this year on getting a little more power in the lineup," Stary said. "The idea is to get our balance with the short game. We're having a little more of a problem with our short game than in years past so we're going a little more with the sticks and the sticks in this case did what they are meant to do and hit the ball far and let everyone else start running like little gazelles."
St. Charles North (3-4, 2-1) handed defending Upstate Eight champion Bartlett (5-3, 1-3) its third conference loss.
The Hawks staked Callie Dennison (4-2) to a 1-0 lead in the third. Allyse Taormina singled, stole second and scored on Rachel Anello's single.
The North Stars did all their damage in their next at-bat. Seering led off with a single and scored on Annie Korth's ground out. No. 9 hitter Natalie Capone worked a walk to keep the rally alive.
Errors cost Bartlett in previous losses to Neuqua Valley and South Elgin. The Hawks made two Tuesday, including one off the bat of Loren Cihlar that scored the go-ahead run in the fourth.
"The one error hurt us but it was more than that," Wolfsmith said. "We had some walks, we had some errors, they hit some balls hard. We didn't do what we needed to do. We didn't play Bartlett softball."
The error not only gave the North Stars a 2-1 lead, it kept the fourth inning alive for Russell's shot to the fence that cleared the bases. Plezbert followed with another hard-hit ball, this one to the opposite field in right that drove home Russell and made it a 6-1 game.
"It's (3-4 record) not the start we wanted but we're getting better and really trying and it showed in the game today," Plezbert said.
Engel allowed 5 hits and 2 walks and struck out five. Bartlett put two runners on in the fifth before Engel got Megan Morales to line to right.
Seering ended the game by crashing into the center field fence to haul in a long blast by Elizabeth Kay.
"She's (Seering) one of our new kids on the block," Stary said. "She has long legs and covers a ton of ground."
None of the Bartlett starters had a multiple-hit day. Wolfsmith said he is looking for a better approach from his team at the plate, starting today at Waubonsie Valley.
"We walked up there, took average swings at bad pitches to swing at and we get bad results," Wolfsmith said. "The little things that make a good softball team we're lacking."