Lisle cruises into sectional
A so-so start to the season never swayed Lisle coach Jen Pomatto's faith in her team.
Now look at the Lions.
No. 3 seed Lisle pounded out 14 hits to back another strong Bekka Houda start, beating No. 1 Immaculate Conception 15-0 to win the Class 2A Lisle regional final.
Lisle (20-9), 13-1 since April 29, beat regional opponents St. Edward and IC by a combined score of 25-0. The Lions move on to face Timothy Christian, which Lisle beat 9-0 in April, in a sectional semifinal Thursday at Benedictine University.
"The girls are just really clicking," Pomatto said. "I kept telling them, 'It will come, it will come, it will come' and that nobody would remember their record in April when the postseason came around. I'm just glad it finally did and I was right."
The Lions pounced on every IC miscue. Already leading 2-0 in the second, Lisle's Jackie Todd reached on a throwing error, advanced on a pitch in the dirt and scored on a Shelby Kretman single. Two IC errors set up Stephanie Petkovsek's 2-run single in the third and Colleen Drennan, and Kelly Urban singled and scored on a throwing error in the fourth.
"We took advantage of the errors," Urban said, "and when we got up to bat we got the hits we needed to get to drive in the runs."
Lisle poured it on in the sixth, sending 12 batters to the plate to score 8 runs. Drennan, Urban, Melanie Early, Petkovsek and Kretman each had 2 hits.
"We're playing solid defense right now," Kretman said, "scoring a lot of runs and playing well as a team."
IC committed 6 errors and had two of its five baserunners thrown out trying to take the extra bag on sacrifice bunts. Jocelyn Sanchez reached twice for IC, which wrapped up a 22-10 season.
"We were just throwing the ball around," IC coach Frank Reaber said, "and we left openings for them. Lisle is a good team. They flat-out beat our butts today."
Houda didn't match her 15-strikeout dominance against St. Edward but was no less effective. She struck out four in front of error-free defense and has thrown shutouts in three straight starts.
"I cannot say enough about how much Bekka has worked on her mental game, to be mentally tough," Pomatto said. "If something does go wrong, she's ready to fire back in there. Everybody is in the right groove right now, picking people up."
Glenbard South 3, Yorkville 0: Jess Wilkes (21-2) fired a no-hitter, striking out six, and also slugged her sixth homer as Glenbard South (29-3, 14-0 Western Sun Conference) wrapped up an undefeated run in conference.