Neuqua Valley bounces Benet
Trapped indoors to practice the last week, Neuqua Valley looked in a deep freeze for two innings Monday.
The Wildcats heated up in a hurry.
Brooke Meyer’s 3-run double snapped a sixth-inning tie, and No. 20 Neuqua rallied from an early 5-run hole to beat No. 13 Benet 10-7 in the Wildcats’ season opener in Naperville.
Meyer had 2 doubles and drove in 4 runs for Neuqua, who trailed 5-0 after two innings.
“We still had plenty of time to come back,” Meyer said, “We got together and started fresh. You have to have short-term memory as a player.”
Neuqua won despite a tremendous individual performance by Benet leadoff hitter Maeve McGuire.
The Redwings lefty-hitting sophomore doubled and scored in the first inning and hit an opposite-field grand slam in the second to put Benet (2-1) ahead 5-0. After Neuqua surged ahead 7-5, McGuire cracked a 2-run homer to center in the sixth to tie it.
“There aren’t too many hitters around better than Maeve,” Benet coach Jerry Schilf said. “Hitting two home runs in this kind of condition, there aren’t too many better than her. But it wasn’t enough.”
Amanda Mener was plunked in the back leading off the bottom of the sixth, and one out later Jena Boudreau dropped down a perfect bunt single. Leigh Nebendahl reached on an infield single, loading the bases for Meyer.
The Neuqua junior, the top hitter on the JV team last year now filling the big shoes left by graduated Wildcats star Jenna Marsalli, lifted a towering drive to left on the two-strike offering.
It dropped near the fence, clearing the bases.
“She got me down 1-2 and threw it low,” Meyer said, “and I just tried to do the best I could to put it in play. I thought it was gone, but it was a little high. The wind took it. It still worked.”
Benet put a runner on in the seventh, but Mener made a diving catch in center to end the game with McGuire in the on-deck circle.
“We should have scored a few more runs, but you have to give them credit. They didn’t quit and we didn’t quit,” Schilf said. “It’s a miserable day to play softball but I thought both teams competed well.”
Trailing 5-0, Neuqua strung together five straight hits with two outs in the third to creep within 5-3. Kate Lelek’s bases-loaded walk with two outs in the fifth made it 5-4, and Chelsea Mueller followed with a bases-clearing double over the Benet left fielder.
“I told the girls coming in ‘Benet is a tough team, they have a lot of power, they’re going to come out hitting and if we don’t answer back we’re going to struggle,’” said Neuqua’s Melissa Wilson, victorious in her first game as interim head coach. “We had a rough first couple innings but they worked every single inning to come back.”
After a rocky first couple innings, Neuqua starter Jena Boudreau settled down. McGuire’s second homer was the only damage after the second inning, and Boudreau walked just 1 batter the last four innings after issuing 5 the first three.
“We started to adjust calling pitches,” Wilson said, “and I told her to keep her fingers warm in between innings, to go pitch a few balls before she went back out there. I think that made a difference.”
Joliet Catholic 11, Waubonsie Valley 1: Jessica Sarch tripled and scored on Haylie Wensel’s single for the Warriors’ (0-1) lone run in Joliet.
Morton 17, Montini 7: Freshman Christina Barrett went 2-for-3, drove in 3 runs and stole a base for the visiting Broncos (0-1).