Larkin’s Hight notches 300th win
When South Elgin High School opened, and the athletic talent in Elgin Area District U-46 split yet again, Larkin softball coach Larry High had to wonder if he’d be around long enough to reach the 300-win milestone.
He was, er, is.
Hight’s Royals swept a home nonconference doubleheader from Deerfield Saturday, winning 15-4 and 5-4 to hand their 16-year coach his 300th career win.
“The last 30 or 40 have been tough,” said Hight, whose last winning season was 2005. “But the best part is these girls are fun to coach. They come to practice with a good work ethic and that makes it enjoyable win or lose.”
Larkin won three straight Upstate Eight Conference championships between 2001 and 2002. Hight also led the program to regional titles in 1999, 2003 and 2004. Countless Larkin players have gone on to play collegiately after leaving the program, most notably Stacey Nagel (Mercer University), Courtney LaFerle (Valparaiso) and Tracy Korth (Valparaiso). From 1999 through 2004 the program produced six honorary captains of the Daily Herald All-Area team — Nagel (1999), Tami Potter (2000, ECC), Kim Dean (2001, UW-Parkside), Lauren Morstad (2002, UW-Whitewater), Lindsey Hall (2003, St. Xavier) and Korth (2004).
“There sure have been a lot of great memories,” said Hight, now 300-207-6. “I’ve always said you have to have five ingredients to be successful —good talent, good assistant coaches, parents who bring kids up playing the game, an athletic department that’s behind you and a booster club that helps getting nice fields like we have.
“I’ve had all that and the rest has been easy.”
As for the 300 wins, Hight said he didn’t draw attention to it with his team but assistant coach Dave Lodge took care of that.
“You don’t say anything about it as the coach about to get it,” Hight said. “It’s about the kids, not me. But Dave Lodge took care of things. They doused me with water pretty good and they had a cake with 300 on it. That was all very nice and thoughtful.”
The celebration almost had to be put on hold as the Royals had to score in the bottom of the seventh inning to win Game 2, Alex Buhrow driving in Corinne Wimmer with the game-winning run.
For the day, Wimmer was 6-for-6 with a triple, 2 RBI and 7 runs scored, while Buhrow was 6-for-8 with a home run, 2 doubles and 8 RBI. Lexi Smithberg was 3-for-4 with a triple, 2 RBI and 3 sacrifice bunts that Hight called, “huge”.
Nikki Banks added a double and an RBI for Larkin in Game 1, while Anna Esterino added an RBI and winning pitcher Kiernan Schock had a double in Game 2. Schock struck out 11 and allowed just 2 hits and 1 earned run in the nightcap while Megan Johnson got the win in Game 1, allowing 3 hits in 3 innings. Smithberg pitched the final 2 innings, not allowing a run and striking out two.
“It was a great doubleheader for our team,” Hight said. “We started the season 3-1 then we lost three straight. Today we bounced back with two wins so it was a good day.”