South Elgin upends Neuqua Valley
This is the team South Elgin softball coach Jason Schaal was hoping he’d see all along.
For the second straight day, the Storm played a relatively crisp and clean game, combining good pitching, timely hitting and good defense to defeat Neuqua Valley 9-4 Thursday in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division action in South Elgin.
Following Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Waubonsie Valley, the Storm has its third 2-game winning streak of the season, but the first one against .500 or better teams. Both Waubonsie and Neuqua were in the thick of the Valley race until this week. Now, thank in part to South Elgin’s sudden resurgence, Bartlett has a 3-game lead with 7 left to play.
“This is what I was hoping to see,” Schaal said. “We’ve got one senior, two juniors and six sophomores out there. We’re doing some good things with some youth. This is what we want going into the postseason.”
The Storm (10-17, 7-7) took advantage of 5 errors in the game by the Wildcats, 3 of them in the first inning as South Elgin jumped out to a 3-0 lead off junior Sydney Foran. Junior Victoria Watt led off with a double and after Kara Rodriguez walked, both moved up on a wild pitch. Then, Alyssa Buddle reached on a dropped third strike that also resulted in a throwing error and allowed Watt to score. Senior Sam Bolin, who moved her record to 8-10 as the winning pitcher, then singled to left field to score Rodriguez and an errant throw to try to get Bolin at second went to the outfield fence as Bolin scampered home.
“(Wednesday) and today we’ve had more errors than we’ve had the entire season,” said Neuqua coach Melissa Wilson, whose team fell to Metea Valley on Wednesday and went 0-3 this week.
South Elgin made it 4-0 in the second when Watt’s double drove home Paige Allen, who reached on a one-out single and took second on an error. Neuqua Valley, which did have 11 hits but left 10 runners on base, fought back to score a run in the third on Kelsey Dominguez’s RBI double but the Storm put the game away in the bottom of the inning. After Brittany Koss and Taylor Rees reached on fielder’s choices and Natalie Tortoricci drew a walk to lead the bases, Allen (3-for-4 cleared the bases with a double on reliever Madison Bartlett’s first pitch.
Neuqua (16-10, 9-4) closed to within 6-3 in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Kailey Cadogan and a bases-loaded walk to Katie Cruse. Watt, who was 5-for-8 with 4 doubles the last two days, scored on Buddle double to restore the lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the inning.
“We’re finding our potential,” said Watt. “We’re believing in each other, we’re supporting each other and we’re staying positive.”
The Wildcats added a run in the fifth on Rebecca Lincoln’s RBI groundout. Kat Widup, Dominguez, Brooke Meyer, Alyssa Domico and Bartlett each had 2 hits for Neuqua Valley.
“Our problem this week has been finishing,” Wilson said. “They came up with the key hits in clutch situations today and we didn’t. South Elgin’s playing well right now. Give them credit.”
Buddle had 2 doubles for the Storm and Bolin had 2 hits. South Elgin committed just 1 error in the game.
“One error in the last two games,” Schaal said. “And the bats are starting to show up. It’s been good pitching, solid defense and timely hitting. We go into (sectional) seeding Monday 10-17 but we’re 10-10 against Illinois teams but I hope people see our competition, see we play good schools and we’re doing well.”