Metea’s Caputo, Bova hang tough
Alexa Caputo and Stephanie Bova lived on the edge for seven innings Tuesday.
But Metea Valley’s pitchers sure minimized the damage.
No. 11 Geneva put multiple runners on base in every inning, but Caputo and Bova time and again got the big outs in a 4-2 win on a blustery day in Aurora.
“It was kind of scary, I guess,” said Caputo, who worked the first four innings in her first start of the season. “As a pitcher you just have to compose yourself on the mound and you have to stay focused. It’s just you and the batter. You can’t worry about what happened before.”
Metea’s biggest escape might have come in the sixth, leading 4-1.
Bova, in her second inning of relief of Caputo, walked Clare Stribling leading off and Anna Geary reached on an error. Bridget Weitzel’s bunt single loaded the bases with nobody out, but Bova came back to strike out No. 3 hitter Kirsten Searcy. Elena Wright followed with a line drive that Metea first baseman Lori Obendorf snagged and doubled off the runner.
“Unfortunately our defense didn’t help us out much today,” said Metea coach Kris Kalivas, whose team committed 5 errors, “but our pitchers did a great job of getting out of several jams because of our defense. I thought both of them pitched great games.”
Geneva (5-2) stranded 13 runners on base in having its five-game win streak snapped, but Vikings coach Greg Dierks wasn’t exactly fretting about his team. Geneva pounded out 10 hits, 2 each by Searcy and Stribling, with many hard-hit outs. Vikings rallies in the first, third and fourth were all thwarted by hard-hit, inning-ending flyballs to Johnny-on-the-spot Sara Knox in right field.
“To be honest with you, in a lot of ways we played better today and did a lot of things better than we’ve done in the games that we’ve won,” Dierks said. “Six of seven innings our third outs were line drives on well-hit balls. We had more good at-bats today than we’ve had in any other game.”
Kelly Gordon’s RBI single gave Geneva a 1-0 lead in the third, but Metea (3-0) surged ahead with 2 runs in the fourth and 2 more in the fifth.
Anna Petersen singled to start the fourth, and one out later Obendorf reached second and Petersen took third when a high fly in center was dropped near the fence. Caputo then lined a 2-2 pitch over the leaping second baseman to score Petersen, and Emily Baker’s squeeze bunt scored Obendorf.
In the fifth Alise Perna, who was 2-for-3 and reached base 3 times, singled off the shortstop’s glove to start things, and Alyssa Coletto walked on a full count. Petersen reached on an infield error to score Perna and Coletto scored on a pop fly to short center.
“We had a couple plays that we didn’t make that we should,” Dierks said. “Our defense let us down a little bit at times.”
Hot-hitting Metea shortstop Petersen, who already has Division I offers from Michigan State, Northwestern and Illinois, was 2-for-2 and reached base 3 times after hitting .625 in two games last week with a walk-off single Saturday versus Plainfield East.
“I’ll take her at the plate in clutch situations any day,” Kalivas said. “We did a great job of taking advantage of what we got.”