South Elgin stuns St. Charles East in UEC
Linescores can often times be deceiving.
St. Charles East rapped out 17 hits against South Elgin Tuesday, but the Storm came up with the big hits when they were needed and stunned the Saints 7-5 in an Upstate Eight Conference softball game at South Elgin.
"When you get that many runners on you gotta get a little hungry and get them in," said Saints coach Kelly Horan. "We didn't do that."
South Elgin did, and in the process the Storm (3-9, 1-5) not only picked up its first UEC win of the season but extended what is now a modest two-game winning streak.
"To get our first conference win against a quality opponent like St. Charles East is huge," said South Elgin coach Jason Schaal. "We're starting to believe in ourselves."
Senior shortstop Courtney Bosteder delivered the biggest of South Elgin's 11 hits, lacing a 2-run double just inside the third-base line to score Katelyn Stonecipher with the tying run and Caitie Stredde with the go-ahead run with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning. Bosteder's twin sister Rae then drove her sibling home with an insurance tally and sophomore Sam Bolin shut the Saints (9-4, 5-2) down in the top of the seventh to preserve the win.
"I had two strikes on me and I was just looking for a pitch to hit," said Courtney Bosteder. "I got a good pitch and was able to drive it down the line. I did what I had to do."
As did Bolin, despite giving up 17 singles, several of which were duck snorts down the right-field line. She worked out of jam after jam, hitting her spots low and outside, as the Saints left 12 runners on base in the game.
"We were coming off a win against Jacobs and we had good energy today," said Bolin, who struck out three, walked one and benefitted from an errorless game by her defense. "I'm very happy with the way we played today. If we keep playing like this we'll be tough to beat."
"Bolin did a phenomenal job of hitting her spots," Schaal said. "They had some duck snort hits but that's because Sam was hitting her spots."
The Saints scored once in the first on an RBI single from Dani Asquini but South Elgin came back to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on a 2-run single from Rae Bosteder, who was 3-for-4 with a double and 3 RBI. St. Charles East then used consecutive RBI singles from Casey Driessen, Bethany Carrignan (3-for-4) and Mary Kate Brooks (3-for-5) to take a 4-2 lead in the third, and extended it to 5-2 in the fourth when Asquini drove home Jenny Niemiec (3-for-4).
South Elgin closed the gap to 5-4 in the bottom of the fourth, using an RBI single from Kara Rodriguez (3-for-3), a Saints fielding error and an RBI groundout from Stredde to plate 2 runs.
The Storm's sixth-inning rally started with a Rodriguez single. Then, on Stonecipher's sacrifice bunt, the Saints made a throwing error. Stredde bunted and Rodriguez was out at the plate but the speedy Stonecipher and Stredde got to second and third on the play, setting up Courtney Bosteder's big double down the line.
"Our defense was shaky," Horan said. "We gave up too much."
Bolin allowed St. Charles East, which was coming off an emotional loss to future UEC rival Geneva on Monday, 4 hits over the final three innings but all 4 runners were stranded, three of them in scoring position.
"The good thing about playing every day this week is that the kids will have a short memory," Horan said. "(Monday) was a fluke. Today, this team beat us. They took it from us. South Elgin has a lot of scrappy heart."
Katie Stengler suffered the loss in relief of Gaby Moe for the Saints, who also got 2 hits from Steph Roan.