Lisle learns in loss to Coal City
With the great expectations Lisle has this spring, two straight losses might seem cause for alarm.
Lions coach Jen Pomatto isn’t biting.
Coal City broke open a tie game with 2 runs in the sixth inning and 5 more in the seventh to beat Lisle 8-1 on Monday to hand the Lions their second loss in a week’s time.
It’s a long season, Pomatto reassured.
“I didn’t expect us to go 36-0 this season,” Pomatto smiled, “and I don’t expect us to go undefeated the rest of the year. What I do expect is that we’re going to learn from each game. Unlike football, we all make the playoffs. We need to make sure that we are playing our best softball at the right time.”
This setback was a much cleaner game than last Thursday’s 5-1, error-plagued defeat at Manteno. Lisle (6-2, 0-2 Interstate Eight Conference) didn’t commit any errors, and Lions starter Haley Locher and Coal City’s Morgan Youskevitch were locked in a 1-1 game through five innings.
Coal City’s Molly Manietta doubled the opposite way to start the sixth-inning uprising. In the seventh Manietta went the opposite way again, her 2-run homer to right-center giving the Coalers (8-2, 2-0) a 5-1 lead.
“She was probably the best pitcher we’ve seen all season,” Manietta said of Locher, “so we had to wait, adjust and break loose. Hitting, it’s contagious.”
Two singles and an out later, Emily Aichele went deep for a 3-run homer to center, ending Locher’s day. Locher (3-1) did strike out nine before things caved in late. Pomatto chalked it up as a learning experience for her young pitcher.
“Haley’s stuff wasn’t keeping them off-balance enough,” Pomatto said, “and she got hit. Pitchers are going to get hit. This was kind of an awakening for Haley, a learning curve, and that has to happen. I maybe left Haley in a little longer than I could have, but knowing that we’re going to come back and face Coal City again tomorrow I didn’t really want Melanie (Early) to pitch too much.”
Lisle hit Youskevitch, just not in a timely fashion.
Early doubled in Abby Tarasewicz in the first inning, but was stranded there, a harbinger of things to come. Lions hitters went 1-for-9 with 4 strikeouts with runners in scoring position. Their best shot at scoring again came in the sixth, when Emma Buchholz walked leading off and Kristina Fernette singled with one out. But Youskevitch struck out the next batter and Kelly Urban’s hard-hit flyball to center was flagged down.
“Hitting with runners on base is something we have to do better at,” Pomatto said, “but I really did like most of our at-bats. It’s still very early in the season. Our conference, especially on our side, I think it’s going to be the last man standing. We’re all going to kind of beat up on each other.”