Dykstra’s dinger does it for Lakes
It’s not quite fair to say that Lakes shortstop Jamie Dykstra hadn’t gotten the ball out of the infield heading into the fifth inning in Tuesday’s regional contest with rival Antioch.
Actually, she had walked and popped to the infield in two at-bats.
And then she led off the fifth inning with a blast over the left-center field fence.
Her solo homer opened the frame and sent her Eagles off to a 4-run rally — and Lakes needed all of those runs.
The Eagles (24-12) will play for the Class 3A regional title Saturday morning against Grayslake North. The Eagles held off the Sequoits 5-4 at Antioch.
“As soon as I hit it felt awesome,” Dykstra said. “I knew that it had a chance to go out. I was ecstatic when it went out. But Antioch is a great team. We have played them so many times in the playoffs.”
Entering that frame, the Eagles had just 1 hit against Antioch pitcher Katie Phillips and the game was knotted up at 1-1.
Following the homer, Montana Mang singled. A few Antioch errors and a clutch 2-run single from left fielder Megan Massie seemingly put the game away. Massie’s hit came from the seventh spot in the batting order.
“That was good for Massie,” said Lakes coach Bill Hamill. “She had been hitting four or five for us but she had been struggling. That was a big hit. She had two strikes on her and she hit it right on the screws.”
Antioch’s lone run of the game befoe the sixth inning came on Kaytee Keefe’s third-inning homer. That was Keefe’s third homer of the spring. But trailing by 4 runs with six outs to go, the Sequoits (21-15) fought back.
Phillips left off the sixth with a single to center. She strolled to third on a booming double from third baseman Kaylene Ressler. Sage Keyes brought Phillips home on a bounce-out. Freshman Taylor Schiltz added another double, chasing Ressler and cutting the Eagles’ lead to 5-3.
Winning pitcher Taylor Dishinger took her 2-run lead to the seventh inning, and it started harmlessly when she tossed out leadoff hitter Hannah Skoog trying to bunt. But Keefe singled to left for her third hit of the game.
Antioch standout catcher Amber Mysliwiec reached on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Phillips worked a walked. And then Ressler ripped her third hit of the game to center, scoring Mysliwiec.
And then next thing sighted was two Antioch runners standing on second base. The putout was made, and Lakes had pulled out a victory.
“That kind of hurts,’’ said Antioch coach Anthony Rocco. “But we have a lot of juniors on this team, and we started four freshmen today.”
Keyes had two singles and an RBI for the Sequoits. Sara Braden had an RBI single for the Eagles. Lakes third baseman Marisa Thackston reached base all three times, on two walks and a single.
Lakes and Grayslake North split a pair of games this spring. Hamill noted both games were decided by 1 run.