Early run holds up for Elk Grove

Devan Parkison, Elk Grove’s second batter of the game, doubled sharply to left field with one out in the bottom of the first.

Moments later, the junior catcher scored the only run in Wednesday’s semifinal of the Class 4A Schaumburg sectional at Connie Rahn Field.

Parkison said she never imagined that run would stand up as the winning one in the top-seeded Grenadiers’ 1-0 shutout over No. 5 West Chicago (21-11).

And there’s no way she could have imagined how she would advance from second base to home plate.

Parkison took third base and home on two illegal pitches thrown during junior Dani Goranson’s at-bat.

The second one was called ball four, allowing Goranson to jog down to first base as Parkison scooted home. Goranson’s courtesy runner never advanced past first base.

Not many runners did the rest of the game as West Chicago senior ace Mary Connolly (7 strikeouts) and Goranson (6 strikeouts) hooked up in a terrific pitcher’s duel. Both tossed 2-hitters.

Goranson’s 29th win against 4 losses tied her for the single-season win record at Elk Grove with Cindy Sunagel.

It also advanced the Grens (32-4) to Saturday’s 11 a.m. championship game against the winner of today’s 4:30 p.m. semifinal between No. 6 Leyden (27-7) and No. 2 St. Charles North (28-3).

Connolly (18-8) finished her brilliant four-year varsity career with more than 1,000 strikeouts.

“It’s a real shame (six illegal pitches),” said West Chicago coach Kim Wallner, who was back at her alma mater Wednesday where she was a standout athlete. “I thought Mary held herself together really well considering that. She has done that all season.

“We’ve had a lot of quality pitchers at West Chicago but Mary probably eclipses them all as to what she has accomplished in her four years (three regional crowns).”

Not only did Elk Grove’s Ken Grams admire Connolly’s mound work, the Hall of Fame coach also showed great respect for Connolly’s bat by intentionally walking her three times.

“You are talking about a big-time player there,” Grams said of Connolly. “We had only 2 hits off her.

“Dani (Goranson) was magnificent for us. We weren’t going to let Connolly beat us with her bat. That was the word on the street. You don’t give her any pitches to hit.”

Connolly said she had been called for illegal pitches during the regular season, too.

“I’m kind of used to it,” she said. “What can you do? Everyone seems to capitalize when they happen and use it to their advantage.

“When they call it on me, they don’t even have to explain it to me. I know what I did wrong. I can fix it. But they didn’t think I fixed it on some of them.”

Connolly will follow her stellar high school career by playing for DePaul.

Goranson, a junior, has one more high school season before heading to Michigan State. Right now, she is only concerned about heading to Saturday’s title game.

“That will be a big game,” said Goranson, who also leads Elk Grove with her near .500 batting average. “This was a weird way to win this one. But we’ll take it.”

Goranson, who had been practicing her intentional walk delivery for the past two days, gave up her first hit to the first batter of the fourth inning.

Jessica Wood bounced a single up the middle. Connolly then drew her intentional walk giving the Wildcats runners on first and second with no outs.

Goranson escaped when Parkison caught a foul bunt, followed by a groundout to senior second baseman Jessica Balzano and then a baserunner interference play near shortstop.

“The defense was terrific,” Grams said. “We were able to make all the plays and looked good doing it.”

West Chicago’s second hit came on a one-out double to right-center by Morgan Dastych in the top of the seventh.

But Goranson threw two strikeouts to Parksion to end the game.

“I knew their pitcher was really good and I just wanted to make contact,” Parkison said about her big first-inning double. “I was really happy when I crossed the plate. I knew it would be low-scoring but I didn’t think that would be the only run.”

First baseman Becca Walz singled to lead off the fifth for the Grens’ only other hit.

With the 3 walks, Connolly drew 34 for the season, the majority of which were intentional similar to Wednesday.

“The girls had a great season,” Wallner said. “They played pretty good softball at the end of the season. We just weren’t able to get the big hit when we needed it this game.”