Glenbard South's 'Little One' comes up big

Glenbard South teammates affectionately call Jenny Wittenberg "Little One."

The 5-foot-3 sophomore was one of many Raiders swinging a big stick Saturday.

Wittenberg's go-ahead 2-run double in the third inning highlighted an 11-hit outburst for the Raiders in a 7-3 win over Nazareth in Saturday's final of the Class 3A Glenbard South regional.

No. 4 seed Glenbard South (21-12) moves on to play No. 1 St. Francis at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Glenbard South.

"In practice I've been popping up a lot," Wittenberg said, "but I've been going to my batting coach, he's helping me. It's more a mental thing. You have to believe you can do it when you're up there. We practice situational hitting a lot. It helps. You just have to put the ball in play."

A 2-run Nazareth top of the third put Glenbard South in an early 2-0 hole. But the Raiders came out swinging in the bottom half. Jackie Wrona singled to lead off, courtesy runner Maddy Glab went to second and third on passed balls and scored on Lauren Podgorski's line-drive single. Brianna Meath reached on an infield hit, and Wittenberg smoked an offering from Nazareth pitcher Jill Vondrak into the left-center field gap to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead.

"She needed that hit big-time," Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda said. "She's been struggling a little bit, but this type of pitcher was her speed. I hope that this brings her out of that little funk she was in."

Glenbard South broke the game open in the fifth. Podgorski tripled to left to score a run, and scored on a Meath squeeze. Meath came around to score on a wild pitch and Kristin Grossman dropped down a squeeze bunt to bring home Wittenberg.

"We were making contact the first couple innings," Podgorski said, "but we were hitting right to them. Later on we started to find the holes."

Wrona went 3-for-3, with Podgorski, Meath and Wittenberg all chipping in with 2 hits. Raiders pitcher Jess Wilkes (11-5) struck out eight.

The Raiders, regional champions for the fifth straight season, now get a return date with St. Francis. Glenbard South beat St. Francis 6-1 four weeks ago, at that time snapping the Spartans' 19-game winning streak.

"Every game's different," Fonda said. "We beat them 6-1, but that doesn't mean anything and we will approach it that way. When you get to regionals and sectionals, past results don't mean anything. Hopefully, we can keep this momentum going."