Vernon Hills wraps solo Prairie title
At 7:46 p.m., with the sun setting beyond the softball fence in left field at Lakes, Vernon Hills shortstop Michelle Harris squeezed a popout for the game’s final out.
A long game, which included a long first inning, which included an RBI single from a girl with a long last name (Anya Mollenhauer), ended with Vernon Hills winning 4-1 Tuesday.
“Halleluya,” a Cougars player said as she and her teammates jogged off the field at game’s end.
The win gave Vernon Hills (22-11, 11-1) the outright North Suburban Prairie Division championship, its first since 2008. By virtue of owning the second tiebreaker (wins over common NSC crossover opponents) with Lakes, the Cougars headed into the game already assured of representing the Prairie in Thursday’s conference title game. Vernon Hills will host Warren at 4:30 p.m., and it will also be senior night.
Lakes (21-11, 9-3) finished alone in second place in the NSC Prairie.
Vernon Hills won despite committing 4 errors, all in the infield, which help extend some innings for the Eagles against Cougars ace Megan Meline.
“Disappointed with our defense,” Cougars coach Steve Korney said. “Even in a win, Megan had to throw a lot of extra pitches. We’re not going to win consistently if we play like that on defense.
“That being said,” Korney added with a smile, “I’m ecstatic that we won the division. That’s been a goal of ours, and it’s nice to have it come to fruition.”
The start of the game was delayed a half-hour, in part, because Vernon Hills didn’t arrive at Lakes until about 4:20 p.m. Its students don’t get out of school until 3:15 p.m.
“We try to leave by 3:30 (p.m.),” Korney said. “It took 45 minutes to get to Antioch (Monday). It takes 45 minutes to get here. ... It’s not physically possible, with the distance we have to travel and the time we get out of school, to get here any earlier.”
Vernon Hills was leading 4-1 and was four outs away from victory when the game was stopped due to lightning. After a delay of 1 hour and 11 minutes, the game was resumed with Lakes’ Jamie Dykstra at the plate with two out in the bottom of the sixth and courtesy runner Paige Olker at second. The dangerous Dykstra battled Meline hard before flying out to left fielder Tori Smith.
Meghan Milewski reached on an error to start the Lakes seventh but was stranded at third.
For the game, the Eagles left 11 runners on base, including one in scoring position in every inning. Meline, who didn’t pitch basically the first month of the season while recovering from a tweaked hamstring, allowed 7 hits and struck out four. The strikeout total is low for her.
“Today was weird for me,” Meline said. “Ever since I have come back from the hamstring, I just really haven’t been quite as dominating as I feel I have been in the past with my speed. I think I’ve been relatively accurate. I just don’t think I’ve really been quite as fine-tuned. I’m just trying to find that groove that I’ve had in past years before playoffs. Hopefully if I pitch Thursday, I can find that groove. That would be great.”
Lakes coach Bill Hamill counted 13 runners left on base when his team faced Vernon Hills the last time. Jenn Claussen pitched that game for the Cougars.
“They’re horses,” Hamill said of Meline and Claussen. “You know what? ‘Dish’ (sophomore pitcher Taylor Dishinger) does a great job for us. She understands what her strengths and weaknesses are. Her strength is not throwing a 65 mph riseball to get a batter out. You get a runner on second and third with one out, (Meline) can strike out the next batter.”
Lakes cleanup hitter Montana Mang went 3-for-4, and her fifth-inning triple scored Milewski (2-for-4), after Vernon Hills had extended its lead to 4-0 in the top half on an RBI single by Jordyn Comitor (2-for-3).
Sami Freibrun had led off the game for Vernon Hills with a single. Carly Alm’s first of 2 sacrifice bunts moved her up, and Meline’s single gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Claussen’s RBI double one out later made it 2-0, and Mollenhauer followed with a run-scoring single to cap the inning.
“That team can hit,” Hamill said of Vernon Hills. “(Dishinger) did a great job today. They had clean hits in the first inning. We didn’t come out of the gate well.”