Neuqua Valley wins eighth straight
As nice of a run as Neuqua Valley is on, Melissa Wilson’s Wildcats might savor their latest win the most.
Sixteenth-ranked Neuqua won its eighth straight game — and snapped No. 17 Lake Park’s win streak at seven — beating the Lancers in impressive fashion 8-1 on Wednesday in Naperville.
Wilson, who starred on the 2003 Lancers’ state softball team, also notched her first conference win against her alma mater as Neuqua head coach.
“The girls definitely knew I wanted to beat Lake Park,” Wilson said. “I want to beat any good program, but this is more personal, I guess.”
Neuqua (15-6, 8-1 Upstate Eight Valley) remained a game back in the loss column of Bartlett, which the Wildcats host next Tuesday, in what should be a close four-way Valley race. Lake Park (13-8, 7-2) and Waubonsie Valley are two behind.
Lake Park came in scoring nearly 8 runs per game during its win streak and put up 9 runs on Waubonsie Tuesday. Neuqua Valley sophomore Jamie O’Brien (9-4), though, kept the Lancers in check, limiting them to an unearned run on 3 hits.
O’Brien is on a nice little roll herself of late, surrendering just two runs — one earned — over her last 27 innings. O’Brien only struck out two, but she coaxed nine groundball outs.
“My curveball was working well — going into the game I knew I wasn’t going to be getting a lot of strikeouts because they’re a great hitting team,” O’Brien said. “I was satisfied with the groundballs.”
O’Brien got great help from her defense, never more than in the third inning when center fielder Kat Widup fired a perfect one-hop strike to throw a runner out at the plate and preserve what at the time was a 2-0 lead.
O’Brien aided her own cause too, making five putouts — a couple of them on liners far from routine.
“Jamie is a double threat on the mound,” Wilson said. “She’s maturing and getting smart as to what pitches to throw, and she fields her position so well. She’s quick like a cat out there.”
“I have absolutely no problem with our offense today,” Lake Park coach Tom Mazzie said. “We put the ball in play, and we hit the ball hard. She’s as athletic a pitcher as there is. She snared a few balls that I’ve seen get through all season.”
Neuqua jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Brooke Meyer tripling in Widup and O’Brien with two outs. Tara Palandri scored an unearned run for Lake Park in the top of the fourth, but Neuqua broke it open in the bottom half, sending 10 batters to the plate to score 6 runs. No. 9 hitter Rebecca Lincoln tomahawked a two-run triple into the right-field corner, and two more runs scored on an errant Lake Park throw home for a force attempt.
Meyer, who like O’Brien had 2 hits, finished things off with an RBI single.
“Lake Park is a great hitting team,” Lincoln said. “We had to keep pushing the runs across. We knew we had to win this one for our coach.”