Sowa, Warren a hit at Lake Zurich
A proud softball mother just had to tell her child about one of her statistics.
So after Warren's 7-4 win over host Lake Zurich on Tuesday, Barbara Sowa approached her daughter.
Megan Sowa, the Blue Devils' two-year varsity hit machine, had opened the North Suburban Lake Division game by striking out swinging against Bears ace Shannon McPeek.
It was a striking development, since Sowa whiffs about as infrequently as Warren loses.
“My mom told me it was the third one,” Sowa said after first-place Warren (17-3-1, 6-1) kept pace with Zion-Benton, which also counts 1 loss in the NSC Lake. “We keep track of it.”
Mother knows (stats) best.
And it's all with good intent.
Sowa no doubt made her proud mom even prouder by reaching base safely her next three times up. The junior leadoff hitter smoked an opposite-field double over the left fielder's head in the third, raced to second with a bloop double down the left-field line in the fifth and, with Warren clinging to a 2-1 lead in the sixth, ripped a 2-run single into center field.
By that time, that first-inning K seemed like a long time ago.
“I get a little upset (after striking out), but then I usually get back up so I can motivate myself to hit more,” said Sowa, who finished 3-for-5 with 3 runs scored. She's hitting around .450 after setting several single-season team records, including batting average (.558) and hits (63), last year. She struck out only four times.
“That's another reason why we like to keep my stats,” Sowa added.
Warren got some good stats from players other than Sowa in cooling off Lake Zurich (14-7, 5-2), which had won 10 in a row.
Like Sowa, Kelly Majewski (3-for-4) had 2 doubles, the first of which scored Sowa with the game's first run. Jill Fox doubled home Sowa in the fifth to give Warren starter Jana Wagner (7 innings pitched, 7 strikeouts, 0 earned runs) a 2-0 lead. Fox, Sam Belletini and Jessica Demski had 2 hits apiece.
Sowa's 2-RBI single in the sixth, followed by Fox's run-scoring base hit, came with two out.
“We had some timely hits,” Warren coach Carri McGahan said. “That was a big thing today. We moved runners over and capitalized on some of (Lake Zurich's) mistakes.”
“I was happy that we hit in the beginning,” Sowa said. “Usually we wait until the end to hit.”
Kelly Neises (3-for-4) and Maria Schroeder (2-for-4) led Lake Zurich offensively. Neises had a rare infield double, which scored Schroeder in the fifth. Neises reached on a perfectly placed slap hit in the hole. Warren shortstop Jill Fox grabbed the ball, but with no one covering the bag, Neises raced to second without a throw.
Lake Zurich had its own problems in the field, committing 3 errors.
“We hadn't made an error in about four ballgames,” Bears coach Michaela Towne said. “Our defense had definitely been keeping us in games, and today our defense let us down in several situations.”
Even the Bears' clutch hitting was missing. They stranded 8 runners, including at least one in each inning.
Down 7-1 in the seventh, Lake Zurich got an RBI single from Carlee Parsons, a sacrifice fly by Kasey Roe and a run-scoring single from Christina Sandstedt.
“We had been doing a much better job (during the winning streak) with runners on base, finding a way to push them across,” Towne said. “Today, whether it was pitch selection or just making the same mistake over and over again, we just didn't do a good job of scoring those girls. We didn't take quality at-bats.”