Sweeney, St. Viator engineer stunner over Stevenson
In a game that took just 65 minutes, St. Viator earned one of its biggest postseason softball victories in school history with a 1-0 shutout over No. 4-seeded Stevenson in the Patriots own Class 4A regional in Lincolnshire.
The Lions, the No. 14 seed, received a nifty 1-hitter from sophomore Julie Sweeney (9-11), who was aided by outstanding outfield play from sophomore Torey Lenart, junior Ronnie Mack and junior Bridget Urbanus.
St. Viator (15-22) will face the winner of today's game between No. 5 Zion-Benton and No. 11 Carmel in Saturday's title contest at 10 a.m.
Lenart and Urbanus each had diving catches to save extra-base hits.
Sweeney walked one batter who had reached second base on a wild pitch.
The single hit was quickly erased by an inning-ending double play with a liner to Amanda Presslak that doubled off the runner at first.
The Lions scored their run in the third inning with a leadoff single up the middle by Torey Lenart.
Lenart was sacrificed to second by Mack.
The Lions had 3 hits in the game, Their other two were by Abby Dickey and Alyssa Wojociak.
Barrington 7, Mundelein 1: No. 2 Barrington advanced to the championship of the Class 4A Mundelein sectional to face the winner of today's semifinal between No. 7 Buffalo Grove and No. 10 Grant.
Senior Kim Cygan (27-3) threw a 7-hitter with 13 strikeouts and 1 walk. The Fillies (31-3) were led on offense by Cygan (2-for-4, double).
Jordan Wekony (1-for-3) had 2 RBI for the winners, while teammates Colleen Shandley, Liz Owen and Kristin Kuhn each had 1. Nora Logue added a double.
Elk Grove-Addison Trail suspended: The Addison Trail Class 4A regional semifinal will resume at 4:45 p.m. today with Elk Grove ahead 3-0 batting in the bottom of the fourth.
The Grenadiers (31-3) have a runner on second (Kristy Ottosen) with no outs and Jessica Balzano in the batter's box.
Balzano scored on a wild pitch in the first inning and Stephanie Maday had an RBI double to score Caitlin Garrison for a 2-0 lead.
The Grenadiers added a run in the third when Olivia Roback singled home Garrison, who had walked.
Maday threw the first 4 innings, striking out five, walking none and giving up 1 hit.
West Chicago- Meadows suspended: The Class 4A Schaumburg regional semifinal resumes today at 4 p.m. with Meadows (17-17) trailing 3-1 and coming to bat in the fourth inning against West Chicago. Cleanup hitter MaryClare Loughery will be batting.
The Mustangs scored in the first inning when Maddy Urban doubled with two outs and came home on Loughery's single.
Freshman Josie Suchecki pitched the first 3 innings for Meadows.
No. 10 Schaumburg and No. 7 Bartlett will meet in the second semifinal immediately following.
St. Charles East 5, Conant 0: It's possible to hold the St. Charles East softball team down for awhile. Doing it for seven innings is another story.
Conant freshman Briana Cavin kept her team in a 0-0 game one time through the order before a combination of Cougars mistakes and the Saints' power lifted St. Charles East to a 5-0 win in the Class 4A St. Charles East regional semifinals.
Katie Spengler (7-2) got the final out just before the sky opened up. The teams also waited through a 20-minute rain delay in the top of the third inning.
St. Charles East (24-9) will play the Glenbard North-Batavia winner in Saturday's championship game.
"The thing with our team is sometimes we struggle our first time around, but once one person gets a hit, we all follow through," sophomore catcher RaeAnne Payleitner said.
The Saints scored 3 unearned runs in the fourth, starting the rally with a one-out error when Conant couldn't keep its foot on the first base bag on a bunt. With two outs and two on, the Saints' No. 8 and 9 hitters Kayla Brooks and Bethany Carrignan both singled to drive in 3 runs.
Conant (15-19) committed 4 errors.
"Our focus is put it on the ground, put it on the ground and the kids buy in and they believe," St. Charles East coach Kelly Barnett said. "That was a phenomenal pitching performance on Conant's part. That's how the postseason is played. You are going to find great pitchers and you are going to have to nickel and dime them until you can scratch something together."
Payleitner broke the game open with a 2-run home run in the fifth, a towering blast to right center.
"She was coming in on us all the day and I was having difficulty because I was getting underneath the ball," Payleitner said. "That one I just focused on keeping my hands on top of the ball and driving that first pitch and it went."
Payleitner's homer - her seventh - was the only earned run Cavin (14-11) allowed. She struck out 10 and didn't walk a batter, following up a 14-strikeout effort in a no-hitter Monday against Willowbrook to finish her freshman year with 224 strikeouts. "She's going to be our future. She's a great kid," Conant coach CathyAnn Smith said.
"Our team has battled back a lot this year. We had a few mental glitches, a few calls that didn't go our way but I've got a young team that has a lot of heart. We'll miss the seniors but we'll keep going next year."
Spengler allowed 3 hits - singles to Amanda VanJacobs, Nichole Gross and Lauren Ambrose. She struck out six and walked one.
"Everything was working really well today," Spengler said. "My change-up got a little rocky but I just had to think about it and go through my pitching motion again and I did well with it at the end."
- John Lemon