WW South wins close one over St. Francis
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Denise McCance knows her team's one-sided hit parades will be scarce as the season progresses.
The Tigers showed Tuesday they can win the close ones, too.
Hannah Granger struck out six, Timmie Rappe went 3-for-4 and scored 2 runs and fast-starting WW South beat St. Francis 4-1.
“I thought we executed well, we had runners on, Timmie especially mixing it up,” McCance said, “and obviously Hannah pitched a good game.”
WW South's bats have been scorching in the early going this season. The Tigers (7-2) had scored 88 runs over eight games coming into Tuesday, hitting close to .400 as a team. WW South scored 48 runs in four wins at the Meade County Tournament in Kentucky over the weekend.
“We have fast hitters at the top, powerful hitters in the middle and then fast hitters at the bottom to knock those girls in,” Rappe said. “Top to bottom, everybody's doing well.”
Granger's control was hit-and-miss Tuesday, but she effectively held a good-hitting St. Francis team at bay.
Granger (5-0) walked five and hit a batter but didn't allow a hit until Blaine Carragher's two-out RBI double in the fifth. In the fourth inning St. Francis loaded the bases on walks with one out, but Granger induced a comebacker for a 1-2-3 double play.
“The strike zone was jumping around a little bit,” Granger said, “but my change seemed to be working well, and this is probably the hardest I've thrown in a while. (That comebacker) is a play we always work on in practice. It was good to be able to execute it.”
WW South broke ahead 2-0 in the third. Jill Morano reached on an error leading off, advanced to second on a groundout, took third on a pitch in the dirt and scored on Sarah Skurla's RBI groundout. Rappe singled and scored on Kristy Santora's two-strike double to center.
“It's not just the top of our lineup,” McCance said. “Any of these girls can put pressure on the defense.”
The Tigers tacked on 2 insurance runs in the seventh. Skurla walked with two out, and slap-hitting lefty Rappe caught St. Francis' outfield playing in, tripling in a run to center. She scored on an error.
“A lot of teams do that. Because I'm a slapper, they play me in pretty far,” Rappe said. “Last weekend I would hit it right to them in the outfield and it was getting so frustrating. I just went up there in that situation and in my head I said to myself, ‘I'm hitting this right now.'”
WW South managed just 5 hits but didn't strike out once.
“Probably the toughest pitcher we've seen so far,” Granger said. “It was nice to get to see the kind of pitching we're going to see in conference every day.”
St. Francis starting pitcher Taylor Ronchetto gave up just 2 earned runs. Emily Karpinski doubled and reached base three times for the Spartans (1-1), playing their first full game in eight days.
“Taylor pitched well — they didn't make any mistakes in the field and we had a couple little mistakes,” St. Francis coach Ralph Remus said. “No shame — they're a good team. A good team is going to take advantage of the mistakes you make.”