Montini matches St. Francis homer for homer
One dramatic homer apparently deserved another Friday in Lombard.
Montini’s Sara Ross was more than happy to do the honors.
After St. Francis’ Aly Germanos tied the game with a 3-run homer in the top of the seventh, Ross answered with a walkoff shot leading off the bottom half, giving the Broncos a thrilling 7-6 win.
“There were a whole bunch of emotions those last couple innings,” Ross said. “I was just looking to get a basehit. I didn’t think it was going out.”
Ross took Maggie Remus’ low-and-away offering — a good pitcher’s pitch, in all reality — and went the opposite way for a flyball that carried over the fence in right field for her first homer.
Ross said she’s grown used to getting pitched away and made this one hurt.
“They’d been pitching me outside and away the last couple games,” Ross said. “I think it’s because our team is really good at pulling the ball. We’ve talked about hitting it to right field. I guess it finally paid off.”
Two teams that split the Suburban Christian Conference Blue title two years ago were scoreless into the bottom of the fourth, then waged a see-saw affair into the seventh.
St. Francis (11-2, 3-1) got a pair of leadoff singles to start its seventh. One out later, Germanos launched a towering two-strike drive over the fence in left. Two innings earlier, in the Montini fifth, Germanos made a spectactular back-to-the-infield diving grab of a sinking liner in short center to rob Ross with two runners on.
“Aly has incredible range at second base,” St. Francis coach Ralph Remus said, “just incredible.”
Remus, whose team went unbeaten in conference last year, already was looking forward to the rematch May 2.
“Both teams came from behind, and it came down to the last inning,” Remus said. “Obviously, I’d like to win this one, but we’ll get another shot at St. Francis. We played a good game. I have no complaints.”
An Emily Barg RBI single in the fourth gave Montini (8-7, 5-0) a 1-0 lead, but St. Francis surged ahead 3-1 in the fifth. Lauren Rzeszutko doubled in a run, and after a Germanos bunt single, two runners scored on a wild throw from the catcher into center field trying to nab a basestealer.
Montini roared back with 5 runs in the bottom of the sixth. After two walks and a single, Shaylee Lewis squeezed in Alex Dewey with the tying run. Broncos freshman leadoff hitter and winning pitcher Lauren Trojnar then slapped a single that landed just fair behind the third-base bag, scoring the go-ahead runs.
“The girls, they hung in there,” Montini coach Richie Costante said. “I like being aggressive, and we had the right people up in those right situations.”
Trojnar, not even 5 feet tall but lightning fast on the bases, was 2-for-3 and reached base all 4 times for Montini, which has won seven of eight since a 1-6 start.
“I attribute our start to we played some really tough games at the beginning of the year,” Costante said. “It got us ready for games like this.”