St. Charles N. bounces back to beat Schaumburg
Sometimes a little cold slap in the face is all it takes to wake you up.
Sure worked for the St. Charles North softball team.
After opening the season Tuesday with a 12-2 loss to Plainfield Central, the defending Class 4A runner-up North Stars came home Wednesday and righted the ship, riding a 5-hitter from sophomore Sabrina Rabin to a 4-1 win over previously unbeaten Schaumburg.
“I’m proud of the girls for staying positive and learning from (Tuesday),” said North coach Tom Poulin. “We didn’t let it affect us negatively. “We have 11 first-year varsity players on this team and it showed (Tuesday). Today they came out and didn’t have the jitters they had (Tuesday).”
Rabin, in her first start, was in control of the Saxons (3-1) pretty much the whole game, and her team came up with one big inning to win the game. Rabin struck out 10 and walked 1, and had an RBI groundout to start the North Stars’ game-winning fifth inning.
“They were really chasing my high pitch so I stayed with that,” Rabin said. “My speed was good today and I knew I had my defense behind me. We came back strong today and played more as a team with a lot more communication.”
In fact, after committing 6 errors on Tuesday the North Stars made only one Wednesday, and it didn’t cost them.
St. Charles North threatened to score in the second inning off Schaumburg senior left-hander Alyssa Lancaster. With one out, Courtney Smith singled to center and Mickey Goetz beat out an infield hit ahead of Sara Hausl beating out a perfectly-placed bunt to load the bases. But Lancaster got a force out at home and a grounder back to the circle to end the threat.
The Saxons threatened in the top of the fifth, putting runners at second and third with two outs on back-to-back hits by Lancaster and Courtney Raschk. But Rabin got a strikeout to end the inning.
The North Stars then cashed in in the bottom of the fifth, a rally started by the 8-9 hitters in the lineup.
Sophomore Delaney Olinger led off with a double and junior Kailee Dressel beat out a perfect bunt that hugged the third-base line. Olinger scored on a Rabin groundout and a throwing error on a grounder from freshman Kaitlyn Wasalawski plated Dressel. Abby Howlett singled and sophomore Emily Brodner launched a double to the gap in left-center to make it a 4-0 game.
“That inning we were more patient than we were early on,” said Poulin. “We had some clutch hitting. When we get kids on base and we’re aggressive on the bases we can cause some teams problems.”
Schaumburg did touch Rabin for a run in the sixth as Shannon Felde singled, and with one out, back-to-back singles from Raschk and Renee Kakareka scored Felde. But Rabin got a popup and a liner to first to end that inning then struck out the side in the seventh.
“She’s still growing up,” said Poulin of Rabin. “She’s just going to get stronger and she’s a very mature kid. She’ll be as focused at practice at 10 in the morning as she was out there today.”
Lancaster struck out 2 and walked 2 while allowing 8 hits.
“We had some decent hits but they were right to people,” said Schaumburg coach Ellen Stoddard. “Defensively we were solid. We just had that one mistake. We’re working on specific things and it’s showing in games.”