Burke, Bartlett top South Elgin
Bartlett got to South Elgin junior Sam Bolin before she could settle in Thursday, while Hawks’ junior Tori Burke was settled in from the start.
The result was a 4-1 Bartlett win, keeping the Hawks’ hopes for their first conference championship since 2008 alive and well.
Bartlett remains 1 game behind Lake Park in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division race with 4 games to play. The Hawks and Lancers conclude the conference season against each other at Bartlett May 20.
“We’re fighting for a conference championship,” said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith. “Right now my focus is on playing good softball. The wins will take care of themselves. Today we played good softball.”
The Hawks (14-11, 11-4) hit Bolin and the Storm with 3 runs in the first inning. With one out, Steph Tomazin singled, Jacki Gulczynski was hit by a pitch and Nicole Beck ripped an RBI double down the right-field line. A Lisa Matsie single scored Gulczynski and Kaylyn Zierke’s groundout scored Beck with the third run of the inning.
South Elgin touched Burke for a run in the bottom of the first as Kara Rodriguez singled, stole second and scored on Alyssa Buddle’s single. But from that point Burke shut the Storm down, finishing with a 6-hitter, 9 strikeouts and 2 walks. Her defense played an errorless game as well.
“We’ve practiced so much that I know my defense is behind me,” Burke said. “I have confidence in my catcher and my pitching instructor. We played good solid defense and we hit the ball when we needed to but there’s room for improvement.”
South Elgin (17-13, 9-8) left 7 runners on a threatened twice late. The Storm put runners at first and second with one out in the fifth but Burke got two straight Ks to end the threat. In the bottom of the seventh, Taylor Rees and Victoria Watt (2-for-3) led off with singles but Burke got the next three hitters to hit the ball in the air and close out the game.
“Tori battled and moved the ball and had good location today,” Wolfsmith said. When you can limit Buddle and (Katelyn) Stonecipher you know you’ve done a good job.”
The Hawks added a run in the fifth on Matsie’s RBI single that drove in Gulczynski, who beat out an infield topper with two outs and went to third on Beck’s single. The Hawks got 7 hits off Bolin and didn’t strike out once.
“We get 1-2 hits in an inning and can’t get the third,” said South Elgin coach Jason Schaal, whose team is now off until Tuesday after playing 11 games in 11 days. “There are positives. We played solid defense again. We didn’t play bad. We just didn’t get the victory. But if we continue to play defense like this the sticks will get going.”