Softball: Downers Grove South stops Naperville Central

The way veteran coach Andy Nussbaum sees it, this year's Downers Grove South softball team will not lose unless it has an off day.

At Saturday's Class 4A sectional title game against Nussbaum's Redhawks, the Mustangs were far from off. Ace pitcher Caroline Hedgcock was on, and so were the Mustangs bats as the top-seeded hosts prevailed 9-3 to improve to 36-1 on the year.

"They're really good," said Nussbaum, whose Naperville Central team finished with a 26-9 mark. "It will take a good day by somebody and a bad day by them for them to lose."

Hedgcock, a junior committed to pitch at the University of Maryland, struck out 12 Redhawks while improving to 15-0 on the year. She retired the first 16 batters she faced before allowing an infield single to Meredith Siambekos with one out in the sixth and her team on top 8-0.

"Those first 15, 16 batters she was about as sharp as I've ever seen," said Nussbaum, who has faced Downers Grove South three straight years in the postseason, going 1-2. "I mean we've seen her a lot. I thought, as I'm standing in the third base coach's box, on (Katie) Lamich and (Lindsay) Gonzalez to start the game, I'm like, 'Oh this is not good.' "

While Hedgcock was firing fastballs on both corners of the plate and mixing in some off-speed pitches, the Mustangs took advantage of some shaky Naperville Central defense to jump ahead of Redhawks ace Julie Kestas with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the first. Kristen Lea had an RBI double, the first of 3 extra-base hits by the hard-hitting Downers South first baseman, but 3 errors didn't help any as Kestas saw her 15-game winning streak come to a halt.

"They came out ready to go today. They played real well," said Mustangs coach Ron Havelka, whose team advanced to an Elite Eight battle with Marist at Monday's Benedictine supersectional. "I was real proud of them. I could tell at the beginning they were really into this thing. You could tell they were ready."

Lea led off the third with her second double, and four straight Mustangs batters followed with singles before Rebekah Ondracek capped off the 3-run rally with a sacrifice fly to center to make the score 5-0.

That was more than enough support for Hedgcock, who lost to the Redhawks in last year's sectional and then won 3-2 at Naperville Central earlier this spring.

"Everyone was so up for them," the hard-throwing lefty said of her 2-hitter. "It was so much fun. Energy was incredible. It was such a fun game to play. We have a great offense…Julie Kestas pitched a great game, but we really came through."

In all the Mustangs had 11 hits against Kestas, who had not allowed more two runs in a game since her last defeat back on April 22.

"Really, all the way around they beat us. They hit better than us. They fielded better than us. They pitched better than us. They coached better than us," Nussbaum said. "But having said that, man, I like our team. We had a great team and I thought we were good enough to win it. It wouldn't surprise me if we lost to the sate champions today."

The Mustangs helped their pitcher with some nice fielding, but Hedgcock also was in control on her own.

"We had a really good hitting team," Nussbaum said. "Over our last seven games we've been averaging 6-7 runs a game and the first five innings it's like trying to eat soup with a fork. We just couldn't do it.

"She was outstanding."

In the top of the sixth, the Redhawks finally got on the scoreboard and broke up the perfect game with Siambekos' roller toward third. A couple walks and some wild pitches set up a 2-run single by senior shortstop Lisa Tassi that made the score 8-3. The Mustangs later tacked on one more run when Megan LoBianco singled home Zahrya McFarland in the bottom of the sixth to make the final 9-3.

For Tassi it was a rough end to a great season.

"It's tough. It's tough losing and it's tough losing in the sectional, and it's tough losing to one of our biggest rivals," the Dayton-bound slugger said. "Coming out we knew it was not easy. They're the No. 1 team in the state and they're beating teams regularly by at least 10 runs.

"I think we just had a great season. We would have liked to have gone farther, but we did some great things this season."