Rabin, St. Charles N. handle Perryman, Elgin
St. Charles North softball coach Tom Poulin says when his North Stars have all three phases of the game going, they can be awfully tough to beat.
Friday was one of those days the North Stars put it all together.
Sophomore Sabrina Rabin fired a 2-hitter, her defense was solid behind her, and the North Stars hit Elgin senior standout Hannah Perryman as hard as anyone has all season. The result was an 8-1 SCN win in Upstate Eight River action in frigid St. Charles.
“We feel like when we have all three phases going, the hitting, the pitching and the defense, we can be a pretty good team,” Poulin said. “We’re confident in our pitching and we knew (Perryman) has been dominant this year but we can hit. It didn’t hurt that we saw (Glenbard North’s) Lilly Fecho (Thursday). Facing an elite pitcher like her helped us against Hannah.”
While Perryman (8-6), who came into the game with 100 strikeouts in her last six outings, may not have had her best stuff Friday, the Maroons’ defense did her no favors. Elgin (11-9, 4-5) committed 5 errors, allowing 4 unearned runs to score including 2 in the first inning that set the tone for the day.
“We gave them six outs in the first inning and you can’t do that to a team that’s this good,” said Elgin coach Chad Dahlman, whose team played without injured starters Jennah Perryman and Caroline Sobeski. “You just can’t give them all those extra outs.”
The North Stars (10-9, 6-3) took control from the get-go. Rabin led off the bottom of the first with a bunt that Elgin committed its first error on. She stole second, went to third on Kaitlyn Waslawski’s fly out to right and then scored when Elgin botched Mickey Goetz’s bunt, the Maroons also allowing Goetz to get to second on the play. She scored on Emily Brodner’s bloop single to right field to stake Rabin and SCN to a 2-0 lead.
That’s all Rabin needed. With the North Stars’ defense committing just one harmless error in the top of the first and the right-handed fireballer striking out 11 with just 1 walk, Elgin didn’t stand a chance. Rabin allowed only 2 singles, both in the third inning when Kelly Bremer’s hit up the middle scored Anna Eckholm, who singled to right and went to second on Monica Stockman’s groundout. The Maroons didn’t have another baserunner after Bremer’s single as Rabin retired the final 13 Elgin batters in a row, including the last four on strikeouts.
“She had a rough outing against Geneva so we’re real proud of her,” said Poulin. “She was looking forward to facing Hannah today and she went out and threw with a lot of confidence.”
Rabin knew what she had to do Friday.
“I knew I had to come back today and pitch better than I did against Geneva,” she said. “I just focused on hitting my spots and I relied on my defense to make the plays.”
The North Stars scored 3 runs in the second inning, using a walk, another Elgin error and back-to-back RBI singles from Rabin (2-for-4) and Wasalawski (2-for-4) to plate the runs. Delaney Olinger drew a bases-loaded walk and Wasalawski (2B) and Brodner drove in runs in the fourth as SCN moved out to a comfortable 8-1 lead.
Perryman struck out 8, walked 3 and hit a batter in suffering the loss.
“You can’t take anything away from them, they hit the ball,” said Dahlman. “Hannah didn’t get ahead in the count like she has been lately. They hit the ball and we didn’t make the plays.”