Jacobs limits the mistakes in win at Grayslake Central
The joy of victory was tempered for Maggie Hansen.
The empathetic Jacobs shortstop loved being on the winning side of a 6-1 decision over host Grayslake Central in a Fox Valley Conference crossover on Tuesday afternoon, but she hated the way in which the game was decided.
Errors made the difference, as Grayslake Central committed six on the day.
One player in particular for the Rams made multiple errors and Hansen took no pleasure in that. She's walked in those shoes before, and it's not a pleasant journey.
“Every time I see someone really struggling and making errors, I'm always thinking, ‘It's OK, you'll get it next time. Don't worry,'” Hansen said. “You feel bad when that happens, even to (an opponent). I've had that happen to me plenty of times and it's so hard. You've just got to keep telling yourself to think about the next play. You can't let the errors affect you on the next play.”
But Grayslake Central wasn't able to avoid that lethal chain reaction in the top of the fifth inning.
Up 1-0 at the time, the Rams fell apart defensively by committing 3 costly errors that paved the way to a 4-run inning for Jacobs, which improves to 13-9.
The Eagles then scored one of their final 2 runs in the seventh inning on a Grayslake Central error.
“Usually, we have really strong defense, but today we were just mentally absent,” Grayslake Central pitcher Taylor Janda said. “We let the errors we made affect us the next play when really we should have just shaken it off and picked each other up. We're too hard on ourselves sometimes.”
It was also hard for the Rams (8-13) to crack Jacobs pitcher Tori Berg. She improved her record to 7-3 by scattering 8 hits and striking out four. And unlike Janda, Berg benefited from a defense that nearly sparkled. The Eagles made just 1 fielding error, and it didn't lead to any runs.
“I always feel confident in my defense,” Berg said. “And I felt good today. My changeup and my fastball worked really well. I was able to hit my spots.”
The only run that the Rams managed to get off of Berg came in the fourth inning when Kati Brew knocked in Theresa Curtis with a single.
For Jacobs, Hansen and Kaitlyn Wolos each drove in runs in the fourth inning. The Eagles' other runs were scored off of errors, a wild pitch and an aggressive steal of home plate.
“We're pretty aggressive on the bases and we're smart runners and we are also (opportunistic),” Jacobs coach Jeremy Bauer said. “We were happy to get those runs to give our pitcher more confidence.”
The Rams could use a healthy dose of confidence right about now. They'll be working on finding some and on perfecting their fielding with a bit of a break in their schedule.
“We play only one more game this week so we're going to get some good practice in. We're going to practice hard tomorrow and refocus on what our goals are,” Grayslake Central coach Abbey Tadelman said. “We've got to work those kinks out because defense killed us today. And it's frustrating because we've actually been playing really good defense this season but today it just wasn't there. We lost our focus. We allowed one mistake to lead to the next. We've got to find a way to shake it off and boost each other up.”