Waubonsie Valley wins sixth in a row
Katie Benson missed most of last softball season with a chipped bone near her kneecap.
Safe to say Waubonsie Valley welcomes Benson’s bat back.
Two days after a walk-off single to beat Geneva, Benson delivered a pinch-hit run-scoring double to cap a five-run Warriors rally in the bottom of the sixth, Waubonsie Valley sweeping Glenbard West with a 10-9 win in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader in Aurora.
Waubonsie (7-2), which has won six straight, took the opener 11-4. Benson went 3-for-4 with a 2-run single and 2 runs scored in that game.
“She’s one of our seniors who is really stepping up and showing the younger kids the way,” Waubonsie coach Alyson Kelley said. “It’s nice for her to step into that role.”
The Warriors led the second game 5-1, but Glenbard West came back with 4 runs in the fifth and 4 more in the top of the sixth to grab the 9-5 lead. The first two Waubonsie batters in the bottom half reached on errors, and Amanda Lack and Mel Koulos followed with line-drive infield singles off Hilltoppers pitcher Meghan Johnson, forcing her out of the game and loading the bases with the score 9-6.
Game 1 starter Taylor Langtry relieved, and Waubonsie’s Amanda Minahan greeted her by drilling the first offering up the alley in left-center for a bases-clearing, game-tying double. Minahan, committed to South Alabama, earlier homered in Game 1 and doubled in a run in the third inning of Game 2.
“Any time that Minahan can get up to bat, you know it’s not over,” Kelley said. “She’s the kid I want up there and she knows it.”
Benson, who started the first game, then came off the bench and lined an opposite-field double to right to score Minahan with the go-ahead run.
“I knew I had to get that run in,” said Benson, who will play collegiately at St. Ambrose. “Coming in cold is a little different, but it helped a little that I had seen that pitcher before.”
Big innings were Waubonsie’s trend du jour Saturday.
In Game 1 the Warriors blew open a close game by sending 10 batters to the plate in a six-run fifth inning. Minahan’s leadoff homer started things, and No. 8 batter Courtney Hicks, who earlier had a two-run go-ahead single in the fourth, doubled in a run. Crooked numbers are nothing new of late for Waubonsie, scoring nearly 9 runs a game in its six-game win streak.
“I’ve never had a team with this much talent 1-9,” Kelley said. “It took a little bit of time to put this lineup together, but it’s like puzzle pieces. The pieces are starting to settle into place.”
Glenbard West (4-5), meanwhile, dropped its third game in as many days, and the culprits were varied. On Thursday the Hilltoppers bats went silent in a 2-1 loss to West Chicago. Glenbard West pitching surrendered 15 hits in Game 1 Saturday, and in the second game Johnson was hurt by 7 errors.
“I’ll be honest, this is not Glenbard West softball right now,” Hilltoppers coach Mary McGrane said. “I have yet to play a full game where my pitcher is hitting her spots, my defense isn’t committing errors and my hitters are swinging the bat. That’s been the story so far this season.”
A silver lining for the Hilltoppers, Jacklyn Tyburk enjoyed a huge day at the plate. She was 4-for-4 in the first game with a triple and an RBI and went 2-for-3 in Game 2 with a double. Kelly Borneman went 2-for-4 in Game 2 with an RBI double and a two-run go-ahead single in the top of the sixth.