Houda, top-seeded Lisle feel no pressure against IC

New to the pressure of playoff softball, Bekka Houda sure handled it like one cool customer.

Lisle's sophomore pitcher took a shutout into the seventh inning, striking out 13, to carry the Lions past Immaculate Conception 5-1 at Saturday's Class 2A Timothy Christian regional final in Elmhurst.

The Lions (25-10) move on to play St. Edward on Thursday at the Lisle sectional.

"She's got stronger as the season has wore on," Lisle coach Jen Pomatto said. "I've really been proud of how she's handled the pressure. Last year pitching for Lockport at the freshman level and now she's pitching in a regional championship game, and you'd never have known. She controls her nerves."

A transfer to Lisle this year, Houda (16-8) shared pitching duties on Lockport's freshman team last spring. Her addition is a big reason Lisle has bounced back from a 5-20 season a year ago. The peaking Lions are riding an eight-game win streak.

"They expected us to do better than last year," Houda said. "I like the way the season's gone."

Jocelyn Sanchez singled off Houda to start the game, and after an error and Jessica Oscar walk the Knights had runners on the corners with one out. But Houda struck out the next two batters to snuff out the threat and allowed just one other baserunner until the seventh.

"We talked for the last few days about trying to get a lead on them early," Knights coach Tim Chandler said, "putting the pressure on them being the No. 1 seed. We had our chances. We just didn't execute."

Houda was handed a nice cushion in the bottom half of the first, Lisle sending 10 batters to the plate in a 5-run inning. Shelby Kretman and Colleen Drennan singled with one out, and both came around to score on wild pitches. Two walks and two Knights errors added to the damage, and a third run scored on an illegal pitch. Jackie Todd's sacrifice fly and a run-scoring double by Breanne Prindeville finished it off.

"I wasn't worried about the first inning," Houda said. "I knew we could come back and get some runs. My team obviously did that."

Knights pitcher Erin Dunne, who no-hit Timothy Christian in the regional semifinal, yielded just 1 hit the rest of the way. The first three Immaculate Conception batters in the seventh reached base, Nina Vlahiotis doubling in a run, but Houda set down the next three to end the game.

"That last inning was a little intense," Houda said. "I was starting to get tired. I haven't played in this hot of weather in a while."