Braden sets the tempo for victorious Lakes
“Speedy” Sara Braden rounded three sacks, then sped to play her sax.
As Lakes softball team gathered in the left-field grass following its 5-2 win over visiting Antioch on Tuesday, the Eagles’ veteran first baseman instead hustled to a school band commitment.
“I haven’t heard her play, but I hear she’s pretty good,” senior shortstop Jamie Dykstra said of her teammate and classmate.
In a scoreless game between the North Suburban Prairie Division rivals in the fifth inning, the saxophonist socked.
Braden’s single scored Marissa Thackston (2-for-2, walk), who had led the bottom of the inning with a single and hustled to second on a wild pitch.
“Great hitter,” Lakes coach Bill Hamill said of Braden, a right-handed-hitting slugger who bats leadoff in her fourth varsity season. “People will (say) she’s not your prototypical leadoff hitter, but she’s got a great eye. She takes a lot of pitches. You take a look at your prototypical leadoff hitters and they’re left-handed and they got tons of speed.
“She tells me all the time she’s got tons of speed. I’m like, ‘All right,’ ” Hamill said with a laugh. “But how do you not put somebody in the leadoff spot that’s batting almost .500 on the year? She puts the ball in play.”
Braden got to show off her “wheels” following her single when Dykstra smoked a ball into the gap. Braden circled the bases, while Dykstra raced to third with a triple.
“(Braden) says to me, ‘See, Coach. I told you I’m fast. I made it from first to home on that one,’ Hamill said.
Meghan Milewski then singled home Dykstra to make it 3-0 and chase Antioch starter Katie Phillips from the circle.
“I think our pitcher got a little tired,” Sequoits coach Anthony Rocco said.
Dykstra sandwiched her triple with a pair of infield singles. Her third hit provided Lakes another insurance run in the sixth.
Her triple was hit with the same authority with which she hits books. Dykstra, who scored a 32 on her ACT and boasts a 4.5 GPA, is planning to study at Notre Dame.
“That (triple) felt good coming off the bat,” Dykstra said. “It was one of those where you make contact and you’re like, “That one is going to go,’ and you just run.”
Lakes pitcher Taylor Dishinger surrendered a pair of unearned runs in the sixth but went the distance, allowing 6 hits, including a hustle double by Amber Mysliwiec, and striking out four. The lefty-swinging Dishinger also doubled, nearly missing the left-field foul pole, and her courtesy runner, Paige Olker, scored during the Eagles’ 2-run sixth.
For Lakes (15-8, 7-2), it was its second win this season over Antioch (15-11, 5-3), a team it had never beaten before this year.
Katie Keefe went 2-for-3 and scored a run for the Sequoits.
“It’s always fun to beat Antioch, especially since it’s senior year and not having beaten them before this year,” Dykstra said. “A rivalry and a division game, it’s exciting.”
Before Antioch played Lakes the first time this season, Rocco was scouting the Palatine quad and quickly learned of the Sequoits’ history with their District-117 rival.
“One of the parents came up to me and goes, ‘You know we’ve never lost to Lakes. No pressure,’ ” Rocco said. “I was like, ‘You got to be kidding me.’
“At least we won our tournament, because we haven’t lost that yet. I’m breaking a lot of streaks here, but not that one.”
“It’s one game at a time,” Hamill said. “Any divisional opponent we face we seem to get up for it because we know what it means. We know that we’ve been in second or third place in the division ever since I’ve coached here — four years. We got to take care of business, and business starts there.”