Ellett, Mundelein don winning colors

Oh, sure, the line drive had to hit Mundelein tough-luck pitcher Molly Ellett smack-dab on her right thigh, the same spot that’s already bruised from her glove constantly slapping it on her delivery.

“It’s like purple and green, and it’s ugly,” said Ellett, grimacing.

Her pitching effort against Grayslake Central on Saturday morning?

Beautiful.

The junior right-hander fired a 4-hit shutout, as Mundelein blanked the visitors 5-0 in the opener of a nonconference softball doubleheader. Junior Erin Kennelly also pitched a gem for Mundelein, allowing just 3 hits in a 3-1 win in Game 2 to complete the sweep.

“We were hitting. We just weren’t finding the gaps,” Grayslake Central sophomore Brittany Brown said. “We had a lot of hard hits, but right to people, especially to the pitcher.”

Ellett will attest to that.

In the fifth inning of Game 1, Grayslake Central batter Anna Strickland struck Ellett with a wicked liner. Ellett reacted like a playoff-tested hockey goalie, keeping the shot in front of her. She hobbled to retrieve the ball and then threw out Strickland at first base.

Ellett needed a warm-up toss before the next hitter, Kati Brew, stepped into the box.

“It was a pretty bad,” Ellett said of the pain. “But once I walked it off, it was a little better.”

Brew singled, but Ellett retired the next hitter. Grayslake Central loaded the bases in the sixth thanks to Cally Hayes’ walk and singles by Brown and Jamie Brew, but Ellett got a groundout to surehanded shortstop Maddie Zazas to end the threat.

Ellett recorded the game’s final out, fittingly enough, by stabbing Sarah Kuligowski’s line drive.

“She’s really coming along,” Mundelein coach Brett Wilhelm, whose Mustangs improved to 6-9 with the sweep, said of Ellett.

Ellett’s improvement makes sense considering the junior underwent labrum surgery in the fall of her sophomore year and didn’t start throwing a softball again until March of last year. She spent last spring recovering and didn’t play softball.

The Mustangs gave her all the runs she needed in the opening inning off Rams ace Tayler Janda, getting a sacrifice fly from Alex Hemmer, an RBI double from Kennelly and a run-scoring single by freshman Maria DeVito. In the third, DeVito added a 2-run single.

DeVito and junior Hailey Morelli were both 3-for-3 in the opener, while Kennelly added a pair of hits.

Kuligowski led off the game for Grayslake Central with a double, but Ellett retired 14 of the next 15 batters she faced.

“I’m just more relaxed,” said Ellett, who beat Libertyville earlier in the week. “I was out of pitching shape because I didn’t really pitch over last summer. Now I’m getting into the swing of things.”

Zazas’ first-inning sacrifice fly scored Chloe Peterson (1-for-3, 2 runs, 2 stolen bases), giving Kennelly a 1-0 lead in Game 2. Kennelly (2-for-3) gave herself an insurance run with an RBI single in the third.

Brown, the Rams’ usual starting third baseman, made her first varsity pitching start of the season in Game 2. She scattered only 3 singles but walked seven.

“I was really nervous starting,” Brown said. “But then I realized if I stay positive and don’t get quiet on the field, then I will pitch strikes.”

Grayslake Central got a fifth-inning RBI single from junior Kourtney Passarella, after Kati Brew led off with a double, but the Rams got little else offensively against Kennelly.

“We just don’t have our timely hits happening,” said coach Abbey Tadelman, whose Rams are 8-12. “We’re making contact, but we’re hitting right to the defense. We’re not finding the gaps. It’s really frustrating because we’ve been extremely competitive all season and I think we have a great chance to do well in our (Fox Valley) conference.”

Mundelein got great defense all day from freshman shortstop Zazas, whose future is clearly bright. The 14-year-old handled 9 chances flawlessly.

“She’s phenomenal,” Wilhelm said. “I don’t know many better defenders at her age. She’ll wear everything off the chest. She’s not afraid to put her body in front. And she’s not only a great player, but she’s one of the best kids to coach.”

The Mustangs’ improved defense has, not surprisingly, coincided with better pitching from Ellett and Kennelly.

“Our defense has been so much better as a unit,” Wilhelm said. “Now our pitchers are like, ‘I can go out there and throw strikes, and I don’t have to worry about girls making errors,’ because right now we’re not making a lot of errors. That puts ‘W’s’ on the board.”