Wauconda's Hughes swings into action

She still has the sweet swing, the raw power.

And Wauconda's softball team got a glimpse of it again Monday in its 7-2 loss to visiting Palatine.

Rachel Hughes got a pitch to her liking, and the senior pulled it into left-center field for a double.

"It felt good," she said with a small smile, "so good."

For the Bulldogs, it's good to have their slugger back after she missed all of last season while recuperating from off-season surgery on her right shoulder.

Hughes started at third base on varsity as a freshman and sophomore and displayed good power. She underwent surgery in December of 2008 but still isn't fully recovered.

"It doesn't hurt to bat at all," Hughes said. "Batting feels fine. Not an ounce of pain, but when I throw, it still hurts."

So, instead of playing third base this season, Hughes will be the Bulldogs' full-time designated player. Her bat is too good to leave on the bench.

She isn't counting on getting on the field to play a defensive position this season.

"I would love to, but I don't think it will happen," she said. "It's kind of too late to start to throw again."

Which makes playing college softball maybe out of the question.

"I do (want to play in college)," Hughes said. "But I kind of have to weigh the options out. Do I want to keep on throwing and hurt my arm more? Because I got to live with it for the rest of my life."

Manz game: While Jeff Manz was coaching his Palatine team at Wauconda on Monday, his wife, Jenna, was watching the game while holding the couple's 9-month-old baby girl.

Jenna Manz had an interest in both teams, as she coached and taught at Wauconda a couple of years ago. She's now teaching math at Crystal Lake South.

"That pitcher (Wauconda junior Brittany Ehmann) was her freshman pitcher two years ago," Jeff Manz said. "So that was kind of funny."

Indoor ball: It might have been one of the warmest months of March in recent memory, so where was Lake Zurich playing Tuesday?

Inside.

Go figure.

The Bears played a pair of games in the McCook indoor tournament in LaGrange, losing to Marengo 6-2 and Elk Grove 6-3.

"We just didn't do a lot offensively," said Lake Zurich coach Michaela Towne, whose team mustered just 10 hits combined in the two games.

It was too bad for the Bears that their hitters didn't hit enough balls into the gaps.

"It was about 200 (feet) into left and center, and the ball just kept rolling and rolling and rolling," Towne said. "If someone got a hit there, it was not slowing down.

"It was different. (The ball) bounced a lot more. We used the real indoor balls and the (Badens) were real slippery because they don't get dirty at all. We had a few problems with balls slipping out of hands and a few (players) didn't know whether to charge it or to back up and kind of got handcuffed. But then we got used to it."

Indoor softball games that count on teams' records?

That concept might take a while to get used to.