Stars align for Lakes in regional win over Grayslake North
With all those stars in Lakes' softball dugout, a couple of unsuspecting ones emerged.
Actual people, no less.
Shannon Cooley, for one. Sara Braden, for another.
"She's been struggling, (offensively)," Eagles coach Bill Hamill said of Braden, his sophomore third baseman. "Pushing everything to right field, thinking everything is outside, trying to drive the ball to right field.
"Not tonight. She was on top of it. It was a good time to come out of it."
Lakes figured it was a good time to decorate its dugout, so it did with glossy blue stars and streamers for its Class 3A regional opener against Grayslake North on Wednesday. Two hours after the first pitch was thrown, the Eagles had reason to be in a party mood.
Braden went 3-for-3, Cooley overcame an uncharacteristic throwing error on her part and Lakes scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh to edge Grayslake North 5-3 in Lake Villa.
The win was the 20th for Lakes (20-16), which doesn't have a senior on its roster, and earned the Eagles a berth in Saturday's 11 a.m. regional final against district-rival Antioch (27-5) back at Lakes. An upset will allow Lakes to match the school-record win total it posted last year.
"Tall task. Tall task," Hamill said with a grin, aware his team will be a decided underdog after losing three times by convincing margins to the Sequoits during the regular season. "There is no doubt about it."
"We all want to beat them," Braden said. "We know it's going to take some work, but we're going to work hard the next two days."
Braden broke out of her slump against Grayslake North (19-17) by ripping a pair of doubles to deep left field. She also had a sacrifice bunt in the first and started Lakes' seventh-inning rally with a one-out single to right.
"I was pumped," Braden said. "I was so happy when I got those (doubles)."
Grayslake North, which was seeking its first postseason win, overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2. The Knights pulled even in the fifth on Brianna Leon's RBI groundout and had a golden opportunity to go ahead in the sixth.
They had runners on first and third with nobody out after Cooley threw wildly on a sacrifice bunt by Mindy Runge.
"That was surprising," Hamill said of Cooley's error, "because she's done a good job doing her job in the circle."
After Runge stole second base, Cooley beared down. She struck out the next two batters and got the third out on a groundball, keeping the score tied at 3-3.
"My throwing errors are pretty low so I was really down on myself," Cooley said. "But I realized that I needed to pick myself up for the team and not just me."
Cooley also had a single in the seventh. After Megan Massie reached on an infield hit to load the bases, Knights pitcher Kristina Gandy got a strikeout for the second out.
But when Taylor Dare's groundball scooted past an infielder for an error, two runs scored to break the tie.
Cooley got her 11th and 12th strikeouts in the Knights' seventh to end it.
"I can give her props," Grayslake North senior Ashley King said. "She's a really decent pitcher. She was making a person have to think, and that's the one thing you don't want to do when you're up at bat."
Grayslake North coach Molly Jones thinks her team's 19 wins are the most for any varsity sports team in the school's young history. Gandy had 2 hits and an RBI in the season-ending loss, and Raquel Ness smoked a double.
"I thought we had a great season," Jones said. "We had two seniors (Runge and King) who led us. This was a season to be proud of. We did a lot of good things on defense, we did a lot of good things on offense, and we executed a lot of crucial plays. I'm really proud of them."