Quagliano, Wheeling finish league slate with a win

Katie Quagliano called Monday the perfect way for her Wheeling softball team to end its Mid-Suburban East conference schedule.

And the sophomore right-hander was perfect in three of the seven innings of her 3-2 win at Hersey.

Quagliano retired the side in order in the first, second and fifth innings and gave up her only runs in the sixth while tossing a 6-hitter for Wheeling (8-20, 4-12).

“Hersey is one of our biggest rivals and we were close against them in our first loss (9-6 in extra innings),” said Quagliano, who did not walk a batter. “So this is a good way to get ready for the postseason.

“It’s just a team effort. Everyone played solid. As Mr. C (coach Mike Caringella) says ‘everyone makes the routine plays and then outstanding plays will be routine.’”

The Wildcats’ most important out in the final inning was not so routine.

The Huskies started the inning with an extra-base hit.

But Wheeling left fielder Taylor Vasey fired the ball to the infield and the Wildcats got the batter in a rundown between second and third base with third baseman Amanda Zammatta making the tag.

After that double, Quagliano got the next two batters with her second strikeout and a groundout to second baseman Jackie Resnick to end the game.

“It was a whole team effort,” Quagliano stressed. “We took advantage of some defensive plays and we manufactured runs.’

The first run came when Nette Howard walked to lead off the second, was sacrificed to second by Emily Walker’s bunt, went to third on Zammatta’s groundout to the mound and scored on an error.

The Wildcats added another run in the third when Resnick led off with a double to left, took third on a wild pitch and came home on Sara Kern’s sacrifice fly to right.

Ashely Hafertepe had a two-out double to right-center in the inning but Hersey pitcher Sarah Platt (5 strikeouts, 2 hits) got out of the inning with a fly out to center fielder Gina Fasolo.

Wheeling extended its lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Resnick drew a leadoff walk and eventually scored when Hafertepe reached on an error.

“We were just able to take advantage of stealing some bases and manufacturing some runs (taking advantage of 7 walks),” said Caringella, whose team will visit Hoffman Estates in Wednesday’s MSL crossover.

Hersey (15-16, 6-10) rallied with 2 runs in the top of the sixth when Alex Tinaglia (2-for-3) led off with a sharp double to left-center. She came home on Val Burke’s one-out single to center.

Burke (2-for-3) then went to third on Platt’s double to right-center and scored on Haley Henriksen’s sacrifice fly to left.

Quagliano escaped further damage with a groundout to shortstop Walker to end the inning.

“It was a disappointing game,” said Hersey coach Molly Freeman. “We came within inches.

“But you’ve got to come to play when things are on the line (Hersey was tied for second place in MSL East). And we didn’t do that. We made some silly mistakes.”