St. Edward finishes second to Marengo at Challenge
St. Edward softball coach Mike Rolando wants to play as many quality teams as he can as he prepares his team for the postseason.
The Green Wave got in two quality games Saturday at their annual Chicagoland Challenge at the Elgin Sports Complex.
After dispatching of Aurora Central Catholic 11-0 in the opening round, St. Edward came back to beat perennial south suburbs power Illiana Christian 12-8 in the semifinals before losing to Class 3A power Marengo 13-1 in the championship game.
The Challenge title is Marengo's second straight.
"We're a pretty young team and we've got a lot of kids who need to get more reps and more knowledge," said Rolando, whose team is now 9-3 on the season. "These are the teams we want to learn to play with."
In the championship game Marengo (15-3) simply hit the ball. The Indians rapped out 16 hits off St. Edward junior ace Sarah Field, while their sophomore ace Danielle Simons allowed only a windblown double to Wave senior Kristi Knott.
The game ended in the bottom of the fifth inning when Marengo freshman Reed Karsten launched a grand slam home run over the center field fence to enact the slaughter rule.
"One through nine in our lineup hit well today," said Marengo coach Dwain Nance, whose team beat Farmington 7-3 and Chicago Christian 11-3 in its other two games. "With our strength of schedule we've seen some pretty good teams and that helped us today."
Marengo, whose losses this season have come to defending Class 3A state champ Oak Forest, Metamora and West Chicago, jumped ahead in the second inning when Kaleigh Velasquez doubled home 2 runs. The Indians added three more in the third, two of them coming home on Chloe Montgomery's double, then another in the fourth on Amanda Hart's RBI single. The Indians then scored 7 runs on 6 hits in the fifth inning to win going away.
"They put the bat on the ball," said Rolando of the Indians. "When they got two strikes on them they turned very defensive and they put the bat on the ball.
"If we can learn anything from Marengo, it's put the bat on the ball."
The Green Wave had trouble with that early, striking out five times in the first three innings. For the game, Simons struck out six and walked one.
St. Edward's only run came in the fourth inning when Knott doubled, then went to third on an error and scored on a throwing error after Tarah McShane's hard liner to second.
Simons (10-2) faced only 16 batters in the game. After walking BreAunna Medinger in the fifth inning, Simons got Field to hit into an inning-ending double play.
In their win over ACC, St. Edward got doubles from Medinger, Veronica Rolando and Maddie Kerr and triples from Kristina Brockner and Kerr. Medinger and Kerr each had 3 RBI and Rolando drive in 2 runs. Medinger allowed 2 hits and had 5 strikeouts to pick up the win.
Against Illiana, St. Edward rapped out 14 hits. Brockner and McShane (2B) were each 3-for-3 and Knott, Rolando and Field each had 2 hits. Field drove in 4 runs and Knott and Rolando each had 2 RBI. Field (8-2) earned the win, striking out seven.
Hampshire 1-2 at Challenge: Hampshire (3-9) salvaged its day at the Chicagoland Challenge with a 12-5 win over ACC in the seventh-place game. The Whip-Purs also lost to Chicago Christian 10-2 and Farmington 17-0.
In the win over ACC, Christine Potempa and Grace Jakubowski had doubles for the Whips and winning pitcher Katelyn Bruscato ripped a triple.