Fecho pitches Glenbard North to win
On a raw, rainy day it’s nice to have a pitcher who doesn’t waste any time putting away batters.
Someone like Lilly Fecho.
Glenbard North’s junior lefty took a perfect game into the fifth inning against Lake Park and struck out five in a 7-1 Panthers win on Friday in Carol Stream.
“It’s a tough day to pitch, but it’s cold for everyone. You can’t complain much,” said Purdue recruit Fecho. “You just have to work your way through it.”
Fecho, now entering her second year as Glenbard North’s ace, hasn’t walked a batter in two games and has allowed just 5 hits.
“She hit her spots again today,” Panthers coach Josh Sanew said. “It looks like she’s throwing a little bit harder than last year, but the biggest thing is she’s hitting her spots with each pitch. She’s coming out and attacking hitters.”
Glenbard North (2-0) wasted leadoff singles over the first three innings but got on the board in the fourth.
With one out Jessica Norman golfed a solo homer into the wind out to left-center field, her second in as many days. Glenbard North hit three homers on Thursday in a 9-1 win over Bartlett.
Norman went 3-for-3 Friday with a pair of singles.
“It wasn’t a big swing, but she got her hands extended and through the zone,” Sanew said of the homer. “She had a tendency in the past to drag her hands and stop when she made contact. She’s put a lot of time and work into correcting that, and you can see the difference with the pop of the ball off her bat.”
Glenbard North tacked on 2 more runs in the fifth. Bri Harn, who was 2-for-2 with a walk, singled to lead off and moved up on a sacrifice. Susan Lindstrom walked and both came around to score on throwing errors.
Lake Park (0-2) got a run back in the sixth, Jenna Gorniack going the opposite way for a solo homer. But Glenbard North opened things up with 4 runs in the bottom of the inning.
“The nice thing is in our two games we haven’t played from behind,” Sanew said. “If you can get Lilly a lead she gets into a comfort zone. It’s tough to chase good pitchers like her.”
Lake Park senior pitcher Lisa Baumgart, who struggled in a season-opening 7-0 loss to Lockport, bounced back nicely before giving way to a reliever in the final inning.
“For about five innings we looked like an upper-echelon softball team,” Lake Park coach Tom Mazzie said. “Our challenge is going to be to find that complement to Lisa. We need to do a better job supporting her.”
Lake Park managed 4 hits against Fecho. Two of those runners were thrown out on the bases.
“Regardless of how it spiraled out of control, you can’t expect to win a game with one run,” Mazzie said. “I felt like this was a much more complete game than Lockport, but we’re not trying for participation trophies here.”