Conant can’t slow Maize homer craze
The “a-maize-ing” season for Leyden’s softball team proceeded forward with a flourish Saturday morning in Hoffman Estates.
Junior Morgan Maize belted her 17th and 18th home runs (both 2-run blasts) of the season to move her amazing RBI total to 77 and also threw a 2-hitter as No. 6 Leyden bested No. 3 Conant 4-1 in the Cougars’ own regional final.
“She (Maize) did a heck of a job,” said Conant coach CathyAnn Smith, who guided the Cougars to their best season at 27-3. “She took charge and that is why Leyden is going on in the tournament.”
The Eagles (27-7) move on to the Schaumburg sectional and will face No. 2 St. Charles North (28-3) at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Top-seeded Elk Grove (31-4) meets No. 5 West Chicago (21-10) in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
According to the IHSA record book, Maize tied the single-season state record for home runs. Becky Clark of Newton hit 18 in 1982.
Maize also moved into a tie for second in single-season RBI with Debbie Olson of Hillcrest (1986). Laura Burt of Lexington owns the record with 80 in 1988.
“The girl (Maize) can hit, she definitely can hit,” said Eagles six-year coach Kurt Schuett, whose team won its second straight regional crown and sixth in school history. “And I don’t think she has gotten enough credit for her pitching.
“I don’t think she throws as hard as Bri Cavin (Conant junior ace who finished at 22-3) but she has tremendous movement on the ball.”
At the plate, Maize has tremendous power.
With April Markowski on first base following a walk as the first batter of the game, Maize smashed a one-out, 1-1 pitch well over the left-field fence for a 2-0 lead.
After grounding out sharply to Cavin (3 strikeouts, 6 hitter) in the third, Maize walloped the first pitch she saw in the sixth inning.
It went for her second 2-run blast, landing nearly 25 feet over the right field fence for a 4-1 lead.
“Oh my God, those homers were amazing,” said Eagles junior catcher Dana Sullivan about Maize’s two bombs. “And she definitely had a lot of movement on her ball when she was pitching.”
Conant’s best swing off Maize came with one out in the bottom of the second.
That’s when junior third baseman Kim Jacobson belted a solo homer over the left field fence with one out.
The only other hit Maize gave up was a two-out single to center by senior first baseman Paige Ward in the fifth.
“I was proud of Paige trying to get us going there with that hit” Smith said. “It’s going to be tough losing our three seniors (Ward, Hilary O’Donnell and Kailee Prasbrig) who were with us on varsity for four years. They were a special group.”
Junior Allie Bauch walked to lead off the seventh but Maize got the next first two outs on fielder’s choice plays before a fly out to center fielder Christina Morgan.
“Any team can win on any given day in the postseason,” Smith said. “Leyden was charged up and ready to go. Things just didn’t fall for us. We were not able execute the things we wanted to do. It doesn’t take anything away from everything we accomplished this season.”
Maize finished with 6 strikeouts and one 1 walk against Mid-Suburban League champions.
“I was just trying to help my team any way I could in a big game,” said Maize, who is being recruited by Division I schools including Michigan and DePaul. “Coach told us if the first pitch was good, swing at it.”
Schuett also got hits from Moira Quinlan, Amanda Moran, Morgan (double) and Brigid Mackey.
“Everyone was ready to roll,” Schuett said. “We have been doing a lot of batting practice and the girls played well defensively. I had a lot of scouting on Conant from my coaching staff.”