A near no-no for Doering as Fremd tops BG
Fremd went to the bottom half of its batting order for production on Saturday afternoon at Buffalo Grove.
And with its final five batters collecting 11 of the team’s 12 hits, the Vikings stayed in the top half of the Mid-Suburban West softball standings.
With No. 6 hitter Michelle Mazur going 4-for-4, No. 8 batter Stacey Hnytka 3-for-3 and No. 7 Caitlin Patenaude (2-for-3, 3 RBI) belting a 2-run homer to left center for a 5-0 advantage in the sixth inning, the Vikings blanked the Bison 7-0.
Junior pitcher Rachel Doering remained perfect at 7-0 and almost got herself a no-hitter.
It wasn’t until senior left fielder Danielle Brown ripped a double to the left-center field gap that the Bison (7-6, 2-3) had their first hit with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
“I thought Rachel (8 strikeouts) pitched great,” said Fremd coach Jim Weaver, whose team is 13-1-1 and 3-1 in the MSL West. “She did a good job once she settled in. She had not pitched on dirt in 10 days (after some starts were washed out by rain).”
Doering had a lead to work in the bottom of the second, thanks Hnytka’s RBI single which brought home Mazur with one out in the top of the inning.
“I thought we hit the ball very well,” said Patenaude, a junior left fielder. “Everyone did their part.”
The Vikes’ best part of the game offensively may have been in the bottom of the fourth.
That’s when they strung together four consecutive singles to center field by Mazur (3 runs), Patenaude, Hnytka and No. 9 hitter Janelle Schneider, who handled the catching duties for Doering’s near no-hitter.
Schneider was robbed in her second inning at-bat when Bison second baseman Sara Penelle made a nifty underhand-running catch on a pop foul that kept drifting toward the first base fence.
Allie Gaeding suffered similar fate in the very next at-bat. Her popup kept blowing toward the third base fence, where shortstop KC Dunne raced over and made a terrific diving grab for the last out of the inning.
The Bison also got a standout running catch down the first base foul line by right fielder Becca Winter, who robbed Patenaude on her final at-bat.
“I thought we had some good plays defensively,” said BG coach Jamie Paul. “But we just didn’t bring our bats.
“Unfortunately, the bottom of their order brought it. They shut us down on offense. When we had runners on base, we couldn’t finish.”
Andrea DiPrima was the only Bison to reach base twice, both times on walks.
“Rachel had a 1-hitter against a good Buffalo Grove team with two Division I players (Northwestern bound DiPrima and Western Illinois bound Dunne who also made some nifty stops on groundballs for assists). That’s pretty good. We’ll take that any day of the week.”
Leading 5-0 going into the top of seventh, the MSL defending West champs capped the scoring when No. 5 hitter Megan Hubbard belted a home run over the left-centerfield fence after Megan Horn walked to lead off.
“It’s great to see that from the bottom of the order,” Weaver added. “We like our lineup one through nine. We are not surprised by that. The bottom half has carried us on quite a few occasions. That’s not new for us.”
Nor is being in the top half of the standings.
Palatine (3-0) leads the West with Fremd (3-1), Conant (3-1) and Barrington (3-1) all right behind.