Aggressive Glenbard North dumps Bartlett

Glenbard North softball coach Josh Sanew implored his team to be aggressive at the plate Thursday against Bartlett senior ace Callie Dennison.

"With the wind blowing out and a good pitcher like Dennison you just want to make good contact," Sanew said. "We had to be more aggressive early in the count because if you get to two strikes with her that changeup she throws is awfully tough. We did a good job of going with the pitch."

The Panthers didn't give the Butler-bound Dennison much of a chance to use her out pitch, hammering out 11 hits including 2 home runs in an 8-5 nonconference win at Bartlett.

But had it not been for some untimely errors, Bartlett may have been in position to win the game.

"This is going to be a theme," said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith, whose team beat Glenbard North 2-1 in last year's sectional semifinals. "With the pitching distance at 43 feet now, you have to defend the ball. I would have liked to seen that game with tight stellar defense on both sides. We both made some errors but they got the big hits and we didn't. But I believe defense is going to be the determining factor of who wins championships this year."

Bartlett took an early 2-0 lead on Glenbard North sophomore Lilly Fecho when an infield error after Lauren Chuchvara's one-out single in the bottom of the first set up a 2-run single from Nicole Beck.

Dennison hadn't allowed a runner past second base in the first three innings but in the top of the fourth the Panthers (3-1) teed off.

With one out, Bartlett (2-1) dropped Fecho's deep flyball and three batters later, Bri Harn's ground out drove home courtesy runner Val Davis with Glenbard North's first run. Leadoff hitter Kelsey Muller, who had struck out her first two at-bats then delivered the game-winning hit, a 2-run single to right field, to put the Panthers ahead 3-2. Susan Lindstrom's double drove home Muller and the Panthers had a 4-2 lead.

The left-handed Fecho settled down after the first inning and allowed Bartlett just 3 hits through the fifth. The Panthers made it a 5-2 game on Fecho's solo home run in the fifth and then stretched the lead to 8-2 when Jenny Nelson cranked a 3-run shot well over the fence in center in the sixth.

"We really picked it up," said Fecho. "We were struggling in the beginning but we got it done. We just needed to settle down and get our hitting going."

Fecho said she didn't make any major adjustments after the first inning,

"I didn't change that much," she said. "I just got a little more precise with my spots."

With the 8-2 lead, Sanew went to freshman Lindsey Cherry in the bottom of the sixth and Bartlett was able to close the gap. A single from Jacki Gulczynski and a double by Lisa Matsie set the stage for a 3-run bomb from freshman Katlyn Zierke that closed the Hawks' deficit to 8-5. Sanew went back to Fecho for the bottom of the seventh and she had a 1-2-3 inning against Bartlett's 2-3-4 hitters to save her own win. For the game, Fecho struck out seven, walked one and allowed 5 hits in her 6 innings of work.

"I thought she did a good job of keeping the ball down," Sanew said of Fecho. "It was good for her to come back and have an easy seventh."

Muller finished 2-for-4 with a double for the Panthers, while Lindstrom, Nelson and Fecho each had 2 hits. Chuchvara and Beck each had 2 hits for the Hawks.

"It's only our third game," said Wolfsmith, whose team travels to Larkin for a rescheduled 10 a.m. Upstate Eight Conference game this morning. "We made some mistakes out there and hopefully we'll rectify them."