St. Charles N. blows out Lake Park
While any victory Saturday in the Class 4A St. Charles East regional championship game would have been sweet for St. Charles North, the Russell sisters sure know how to spice it up.
Sydney Russell led off the game with her first career home run, and Taylor Russell ended it with a blast to nearly the same spot, capping the North Stars’ 11-1 victory in 6 innings over Lake Park.
The win gives the Russells — plus North Star seniors Natalie Capone, Loren Cihlar, Amanda Ciran, Ashley Seering, Annie Korth, Emily Watts and Caitlyn Khoury — their second regional title in three years.
It also came with a little extra satisfaction after last year’s upset loss to York in regionals.
“It’s an awesome feeling because there’s a lot of people who were doubting us this year so it’s great to come back and say we won a regional title,” Taylor Russell said.
“It just pumped me up she (Sydney) got her first home run. We’re so close. I’m always rooting for her and it’s awesome for me to see her get her first home run.”
No. 2 seed St. Charles North (28-3) will play No. 6 Leyden (27-7) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Class 4A Schaumburg sectional semifinals, with top seed Elk Grove (31-4) meeting No. 5 West Chicago (21-10) in the other semifinal. Leyden upset No. 3 seed Conant (27-3) Saturday.
“Syd had a great at-bat, that was a great way to get started,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “We’ve got some seniors with so much experience, you could just tell from this morning when we met at the school to the bus ride over to pregame, they were focused on wining the softball game however we had to do it.”
Lake Park (23-14) stayed within 2-0 of St. Charles North in a regular season loss. It was an entirely different story Saturday, starting with Sydney Russell’s home run in the first inning on the seventh pitch from Lisa Baumgart.
“I’m still shocked,” said Sydney Russell, who missed 8 games late in the year with a sprained ankle and said she’s at about 90 percent now. “As you can see my sister is always the one creating home runs and I just wanted to be like her and I finally got my chance just this once to know how it feels. I’m still shocked.”
Watts gave the North Stars a 2-0 lead in the second with a sacrifice fly to score Korth who made a great slide to avoid the tag at the plate.
St. Charles North turned a tight 2-0 game into a 10-0 blowout with an 8-run fourth inning. While the Russells supplied the power with their home runs in the first and sixth innings, most of the damage in the fourth came from St. Charles North using its speed and putting pressure on the Lancers defense.
Capone’s bunt single, a single from Korth and a walk to Ciran loaded the bases, then the North Stars scored 2 runs on Baumgart’s errant throw to the plate off Sabrina Rabin’s little dribbler.
Lake Park dropped a pop-up to reload the bases, and Cihlar and Taylor Russell made the Lancers pay with RBI singles for a 6-0 lead. Capone’s second hit of the inning scored another run, and Korth capped the uprising driving in 3 runs with the hardest hit ball of the inning, a bases-clearing triple to right.
“They have such a balanced lineup of speed and power,” Lake Park coach Tom Mazzie said. “They put a lot of pressure on you. The first time we played mistake free. If you give this team an inch they will take a mile and that’s what they did today.”
The Lancers avoided losing by the 10-run rule — temporarily anyway — when Stephanie Aronson doubled home Marilyn Perry in the fifth.
That wound up keeping the game going long enough for Taylor Russell to end it with her leadoff home run in the sixth.
Ciran allowed 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out four to improve to 20-1.
“This was an ‘A’ game,” Ciran said. “The changeup was on today. It wasn’t fast. It was the right speed. My drop ball was working, they were pounding them into the dirt which is exactly what we want. I didn’t come her thinking I would get a bunch of strikeouts. I knew the defense was going to work today. They are a swinging team, they like to be aggressive, and it showed today.”
After losing 8 senior starters last year and starting 2-6 this season, Mazzie was pleased with where the Lancers wound up. Next year they will be on the other side, the experienced squad entering the year with 6 returning starters.
“Our girls battled and improved and got better,” Mazzie said. “You can’t hang your head because of one game. A better team outplayed us. To beat them you have to play flawless and we didn’t.”