South Elgin downs Larkin, stays in UEC race
Still alive.
After losing to Bartlett on Monday, the South Elgin softball team pretty much put itself in a position of having to win out in the remainder of its Upstate Eight Conference games to have a shot at the conference championship.
One down, seven to go.
Junior Courtney Bosteder had a sole home run and a huge 2-run double and the Storm rapped out 13 hits as they downed Larkin 8-5 Tuesday in South Elgin.
With the win the Storm (15-9, 9-4) stays 2 games behind St. Charles East and St. Charles North in the UEC race and they are now tied with Lake Park in the loss column after SCN beat Lake Park on Tuesday. South Elgin plays at Lake Park today then hosts St. Charles North Thursday and St. Charles East Friday.
"It keeps us in the running for the conference so it's a big win," said South Elgin coach Jason Schaal.
But Schaal wasn't the happiest over his team's approach to the game early. The Royals held a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the fifth and Schaal let his team know they needed to step it up.
"I kind of barked a little and I don't like doing that," he said. "But sometimes they need a little spark, a little fire. Hopefully I won't have to do that too much more."
The Storm did respond to Schaal's "barking", scoring 4 runs on 6 hits in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-3 lead. Winning pitcher Cary Thereon started the inning with a bloop single off Larkin freshman Lexi Smithberg and after a Kaitlyn Stonecipher sacrifice bunt, Brittany Boelter blooped a single into center field. Kim Pierce then delivered yet another blooper that Larkin failed to catch, scoring courtesy runner Kiersa Parillo with the tying run. After a pop up out, Bosteder cranked 2-run double deep to left field to score pinch-runner Caitlin Stredde and Pierce to make it 5-3. Layla Ismajlaj then drove a single to right to score Bosteder.
"(Monday) I was having some injury problems with my back so today I decided to put some heat on this morning and after school and my swing felt pretty good today," said Bosteder, whose solo home run came in the second inning. "Schaal got us going. We moved up in the box, we were patient and we got it going."
The Storm added 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double from Pierce and a run-scoring single from Lauren Vitiello. Larkin (5-15, 4-8) came back with two in the top of the seventh, one scoring on an RBI triple from sophomore Ashley Frey.
"We hit the ball a lot better today and I thought Lexi pitched a great game, especially for a freshman pitching against a bunch of seniors," said Larkin coach Larry Hight. "She pitched well enough to win but we just can't catch a pop up. They're not errors, but you have to catch those balls."
Boelter, Pierce, Bosteder, Ismajlaj and Thereon each had 2 hits for the Storm.
"Courtney was awesome today," Schaal said. "Because of Courtney, Kim and Lauren get to see solid pitches. But we have to come ready to play. We have a tendency to start slow and in preparing for the postseason we have to fix that."
Corinne Wimmer had 2 hits, including a double, and an RBI for Larkin. Megan Johnson had 2 doubles and an RBI and Frey had 2 hits.