Lake Park, Naperville Central split
Lake Park’s 10 losses this year are a little deceiving. Of that total, six came against teams ranked in the top 20 in a who’s who of a tough schedule.
Which had to make Saturday’s win satisfying.
The 17th-ranked Lancers scored a tying run in the bottom of the seventh and a run in the eighth to beat No. 8 Naperville Central 7-6 in the first game of a doubleheader in Roselle. Naperville Central came back to take the second game 5-3.
Lancers coach Tom Mazzie was looking for a signature win the weekend before playoff seeding, and he got it.
“We’ve played Conant tough, we’ve played Glenbard North tough, we’ve played Bartlett tough — we’ve played the top teams tough, but we hadn’t beaten them,” Mazzie said. “We’re peaking at the right time.”
In Game 1 Lake Park (18-10) twice held two-run leads, 2-0 and 4-2, but Naperville Central (19-5) came back with 3 runs in the top of the fifth for a 5-4 lead, going ahead on a Kaitlyn Skarecky single. A pinch-hit homer by Juliet Tassi — her first varsity homer — started the rally.
An inside-the-park homer by Lake Park’s Shannon Fritsche in the bottom half tied it 5-5 before the Redhawks surged ahead again in the seventh on a Maddi Doane triple and Skarecky single.
In the bottom of the seventh, Tara Palandri singled, stole second, was sacrificed to third and scored on Fritsche’s two-strike single. Fritsche, whose average has climbed well over .300 after hovering below .200 earlier in the year, had 5 hits over two games Saturday.
“She’s really turned it around after a rough start,” Mazzie said. “She’s going up aggressive; you can see it in her eyes.”
In the eighth Danielle Jecmen singled and took second on a ball misplayed in the outfield. She kept going to third on what was perceived as an obstruction call and was tagged out there, but after a lengthy umpires’ meeting she went back to second. After a sacrifice Jecmen beat the throw home on a hard-hit grounder.
Lake Park, which hasn’t been shut out, became just the third team to score more than 5 runs against a Naperville Central team that’s thrown 10 shutouts.
“There are no pitchers that our hitters are afraid of,” Mazzie said. “They’ve seen every good pitcher besides Downers Grove North in the area.”
“It was good to see us go up there and be aggressive,” Fritsche said, “and great to see that once we got down we were able to pick ourselves back up.”
The Redhawks didn’t help their cause, giving up 4 unearned runs on 5 errors over the two games.
“We can’t give up those runs in our bigger conference games ahead,” said Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum, whose team is tied atop the DVC and plays at No. 1 Glenbard North on Wednesday.
Lake Park led the second game 2-1 through four innings, and Naperville Central had stranded seven runners up to that point. The momentum turned in the fifth.
Laura Dierking doubled with one out, and an out later Courtney Giebel walked. On a two-strike pitch Abby Anaya drilled a double to center, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs. Anaya came in to score on a wild pitch, making it 4-2, and the Redhawks tacked on an unearned run in the sixth.
“It was a really good feeling to get that hit, especially with two outs,” Anaya said. “My team needed me.”
Naperville Central played Game 2 without four senior starters who left for prom, but the youngsters didn’t miss a beat. Freshman Lisa Tassi had 2 hits and Giebel, a sophomore, played a strong third.
“We had a lead going into the seventh of the first game,”Nussbaum said, “so it’s nice to finish. It’s a good opportunity for those girls to get a taste of varsity softball against a very good program.”