West Chicago drops pair while Connolly rests

Mary Kate Brooks caught herself doing a double take at first glance toward West Chicago's pitching mound Wednesday.

"We were in the dugout and we were like, 'That's not Connolly warming up,'" said St. Charles East's leadoff hitter. "They threw a lot of pitchers at us. We did a good job adjusting to their different speeds."

St. Charles East sure didn't let down not facing the DePaul-bound Connolly, sweeping West Chicago 11-1 and 17-7 in St. Charles.

Every Saints starter had at least one hit in an offensive smorgasbord with the wind blowing out.

"As long as the pitcher is throwing underhand from 43 feet," Saints coach Kelly Horan said, "we're going to have the same mentality. You can only hit strikes. Whether the ball's coming 65 or 45, you only hit strikes."

Steph Roan hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to end Game 1, and Bethany Carrignan capped off the second with a 3-run shot in the fifth. In between Rae Anne Payleitner drilled a grand slam in St. Charles East's 6-run Game 2 first inning. The Saints' cleanup hitter homered 7 times as a sophomore.

"And we had some suprises, some girls who never hit home runs were doing it today," said Brooks, who had 5 hits and scored 4 runs on the day. "They were crushing it."

St. Charles East (3-1) has scored a staggering 39 runs over its last three games.

"That's a new type of stat for St. Charles East," Horan said, "but I'll take it."

West Chicago coach Emily Johnson, whose team is in the midst of playing 10 games over seven days, chose to rest Connolly's arm Wednesday.

Connolly did enter in relief in the second inning of Game 1 with West Chicago trailing 3-1. She pitched three innings of one-run ball.

West Chicago (3-4) has committed 14 errors during a three-game losing streak.

"The girls know that for our team the defense needs to be on," Johnson said. "If it's not, we're going to lose games. The last three games we beat ourselves. We got beat by beatable teams, and it was because of our errors."

Jessica Wood led off Game 1 with a solo homer for West Chicago and went 3-for-3 in the second and scored 3 runs. Connolly cracked a 2-run homer in the second game, but West Chicago left nine runners on base in the first.

"Our bats came alive," Johnson said. "We have good bats. We just have to string the hits together."

Game 1 winning pitcher Katie Stengler (1-1) scattered 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out three.

"Katie did a really good job keeping the ball low," said Horan, also crediting the defense of third baseman Dani Asquini said. "You have to keep the ball low on a day like this with the wind blowing out. Katie seems to get tougher when there's men on base. She did that today."