Jacobs rolls past Dundee-Crown
ROCKFORD — Jacobs got its bats going early against Dundee-Crown Tuesday.
The Golden Eagles never really slowed down either as they recorded an 11-1 six inning victory in a semifinal of the Class 4A Rockford Jefferson softball regional. Jacobs scored at least a run in every inning and had 3-run second and fourth innings.
Leadoff hitter Jenna Teson ended the game with a 2-out walk off single. Teson went 4-for-5 with 2 RBI and scored 3 times. She opened the game with a triple off Dundee-Crown (2-23) starter Amanda Eissler and eventually gave Jacobs (20-11) a 1-0 lead.
“We wanted to start off strong and keep it up until the end of the game,” said Teson, who also added 2 stolen bases. “The ump had a big (strike) zone, but we adjusted with our hitting.”
The top-seeded Golden Eagles, who will play the winner of today’s semifinal between Huntley and Crystal Lake South in Friday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game, got to Eissler early as she went just 1⅔ innings giving up 4 earned runs on 6 hits. She left the game after Jacobs put up 3 runs in the bottom of the second. Nicky Chapa, Kaitlyn Woloszyk and Jackie Hengler all singled with one out. Hengler’s single scored Chapa. Woloszyk scored on Teson’s lone out of the game and the Kara Arceneaux singled in Hengler.
Melany Love took the circle after that for the Chargers.
“On offense we’re getting to where we need to be,” Jacobs’ coach Jeremy Bauer said. “We had good situational hitting. We hit the ball well today and that’s what we’re going to need to continue to do from this point on.”
The Golden Eagles were able to string another series of hits together in fourth, with Teson kicking off the inning. Her leadoff single was the first of 5 straight hits, the big one a 2-run double from third baseman Alyssa Lach. Lach finished the game 2-for-4 with 4 RBI.
Marissa Lombardo (11-5) and the Jacobs defense held their own as well. Lombardo surrendered just 3 hits in the game. Brittany Schultz singled off Lombardo to open the third inning. She scored when Mandy Moore got an RBI single cutting Jacobs’ lead to 4-1.
The Chargers would get just a single hit in the rest of the game. Dundee-Crown did leave 6 runners stranded on base including a runner at third in the first and fourth innings.
“We were in scoring position and didn’t string our hits together,” Chargers’ coach Tracy Beatty said. “(Jacobs) was very consistent with their bats. On defense, we didn’t commit a lot of errors, they hit the ball very well.”