Future college mates get to know each other in Antioch win

First-year Antioch softball coach Anthony Rocco will remember the game.

Future college teammates Amber Mysliwiec of Antioch and Katie Kirker of Jacobs might remember the first time they met each other. The Judson University recruits just might not remember the first time they faced each other on the high school diamond.

“She hit me on the outside corner,” Mysliwiec said of a first-inning pitch from Kirker that the slugging catcher trickled into right for an opposite-field single. “I never go to the right side, ever. Crazy.”

Thursday’s nonconference game in breezy, chilly Antioch? Crazy for Rocco, whose new team bested his old squad 10-0 in five innings.

He coached Jacobs’ JV to a 24-7 record last spring.

“I didn’t want to hype it up,” Rocco said after his Sequoits won their third straight to improve to 3-2. “But about two minutes before the game I told the girls, ‘This is a very important game for me. I want to be able to hold my head up.’”

Eleven hits — including 4 doubles — and 5 innings of 2-hit ball from Katie Phillips later, Antioch’s coach wore a smile. He was proud of both his current players and the ones who now play varsity for the Golden Eagles.

“I had a really good time with those girls,” Rocco said of his former Jacobs JV girls. “They were a very fundamentally sound team.”

Kirker, who didn’t pitch the last two springs for Jacobs because of a right-knee injury that necessitated a pair of surgeries to repair her ACL, started in the circle. She and Mysliwiec didn’t learn until after the game that they are both headed to Judson, where they will be teammates at the Elgin college.

“I knew of her, because I’ve played with people she’s played with,” Kirker said. “But we hadn’t met.”

Kirker pitched only the first inning, surrendering the first of a pair of 2-run doubles by Antioch sophomore Sage Keyes. The Jacobs right-hander aggravated a recent groin injury and played the final four innings patrolling first base.

Tori Berg and Alyssa Lach also pitched for Jacobs (2-2).

“I couldn’t go,” Kirker said. “It hurt. It felt like it was just getting worse.”

Kirker had a fourth-inning infield single off Antioch starter Phillips. The only other hit Phillips allowed was also an infield single, a shot off the third-base bag by Jacquelyn Hengler leading off the game.

“Katie Phillips is throwing so hard,” Mysliwiec said. “She’s doing amazing. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Phillips struck out five and didn’t walk a batter. The junior has replaced former three-year ace Olivia Duehr (Northwestern) as the Sequoits’ No. 1 pitcher.

“Olivia was good, but my pitching coach and my parents told me to just be myself and be who I am when I pitch,” Phillips said. “I can just do my best. I have to be me.”

Antioch scored 5 runs in the fourth after two were out. Freshman Jessica Pederson started the rally with an infield single. Junior Kaylene Ressler then walked, and junior Katie Keefe (2-for-4) followed with a 2-run double, hitting a shot off the base of the left-field fence.

Back-to-back singles by Mysliwiec (3-for-4) and Phillips (2-for-3, double) and a walk to freshman Taylor Schiltz loaded the bases for the righty-hitting Keyes (2-for-3), who for the second time went the opposite way for a 2-run double.

Mysliwiec added a 2-run single in the fifth to finish with 3 RBI.

“Our bats were huge, especially in this cold weather,” Rocco said.

Despite missing freshman leadoff hitter Hannah Skoog, who’s been with her family in Arizona all week, Antioch has scored 24 runs in its last three games. The Sequoits started the season with losses to Cary-Grove and Prairie Ridge.

“We’re back,” Mysliwiec said with a smile. “We’re ready to shoot.”

“Our offense has been picking up,” Phillips said. “We’ve been practicing our hitting a lot indoors, and it’s showing in our games. We’ve gotten way better hitting since our first two games.”