St. Charles North shuts out Lancers
You can't fault the logic of Lake Park softball coach Tom Mazzie.
"No one's ever won a game without scoring a run," he said Tuesday in the dugout at St. Charles North.
The North Stars had a lot to do with that.
Between a complete-game shutout by right-hander Amanda Ciran and spotless defense behind her, St. Charles North won a key Upstate Eight contest 3-0.
"Our defense has been pretty solid all year long," said North Stars coach April Stary. "We had a couple of 'oopses' offensively when we played Lake Park the last time (a 4-3 Lancers win), but this time it was solid defense, solid offense, no mistakes, just get the job done."
Ciran (6-5) scattered 7 hits and stranded nine Lake Park baserunners, coaxing the third out four times with a runner in scoring position.
In the top of the seventh with one out, a runner on first and cleanup hitter Alexis Munaco in the on-deck circle for Lake Park (15-8, 9-4), Ciran got Sam Becker to line into a game-ending double play. On the ninth pitch to Becker, third baseman Taylor Russell gloved the hard shot and threw to first baseman Juliaclare Plezbert.
"That last batter had been pulling it the whole game," Ciran said. "I knew if she got a way inside (pitch) she'd keep fouling it off, or she'd go right to Taylor. And I know Taylor gobbles everything up."
"We just didn't get our key hits that we needed to get to score our runners," said Becker, who joined Carly Willert with 2 hits apiece. "When you get a couple of those hits the game's totally different."
St. Charles North (16-8, 11-2), pulling even with idle St. Charles East in conference, scored once in the fourth inning and twice in the fifth against hard-luck losing pitcher Kelly Loy (9-1), who allowed 1 earned run in 5 innings.
In the fourth Ashley Seering reached on a throwing error on her sacrifice bunt attempt and came around to score on Kristin Damm's bouncer up the middle.
In the fifth Loren Cihlar led off with a bloop single, advanced to second on Sydney Russell's bunt and scored on Taylor Russell's shot to deep center field. As Taylor Russell slid into third, the relay throw skipped out of play, allowing the North Stars' third baseman to continue home.
"It felt good," Taylor Russell said of her line drive, "because I was struggling before. I was getting kind of upset with myself because I was just nicking it and I just wanted to get solid contact. It felt really good."