Softball: Hall, St. Charles East blank Burlington Central

There's a fine line between winning and losing a 1-0 softball game, and for Burlington Central and St. Charles East on Monday that line came in the bottom of the fourth inning.

With the Saints' Jordan Hall and the Rockets' Emily Kisch locked in a classic pitcher's duel, St. Charles East's Delaney Devor stood at second base with 2 outs after a walk and stolen base.

Madelynn Stout lofted a high fly to short center that the wind blowing in brought back closer to the infield. Rockets center fielder Sarah Kinney was about to make the catch but shortstop Kristina Ahlers also was tracking the ball and collided with Kinney. The ball popped out of Kinney's glove as Devor raced home.

That proved to be the only run in the Saints' 1-0 win. Hall didn't strike out a batter and scattered 5 walks, allowing just 2 hits.

"In a tight 1-run ballgame who is going to make the plays? And obviously our one run they didn't make the play," Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. "That's what the close games come down. We made the plays."

Kisch did all she could for Burlington Central (3-1), fanning 5 and walking 3. The only 3 hits she allowed were all of the infield variety to Saints leadoff hitter Kelly Rinker.

"I thought we played well as a team," Kisch said. "We did make some mistakes but we can work on it. As good as a team as they are I thought we stayed with them."

St. Charles East (2-0) left fielder Madelyn Candre recorded all 3 putouts in the first inning on 3 of the hardest hit balls of the game.

Hall kept the Rockets on the ground after that, and Rinker made several solid plays at shortstop to keep the game scoreless. In the top of the fourth she turned a 4-6-3 double play with second baseman Jordan Hieber.

In the bottom of that inning the Saints pushed across the game's only run on a play Rockets coach Erica Maisto knows her team can make.

"I think it was just communication," Maisto said. "They were so focused on the ball they lost track of where they were. That was Sarah's coming in, she's got a better read on the ball coming in. Kristina is very aggressive at shortstop, I love it, but sometimes you need to dial it down and let other people take care of it."

The Rockets left the tying run at second base in both the fifth and sixth innings before Hall worked a 1-2-3 seventh for her second win of the season.

"From Game 1 to Game 2 definitely a marked improvement," Gutesha said. "She was hitting her spots more, getting ahead in the count and getting ground balls."

"I always trust my defense to make the plays," said Hall, one of several veterans back from last year's 29-win team. "We have more chemistry I'd say. It's nice to have that chemistry going into the season."

Jill Neisendorf and Gretchen Schrubbe both singled for the Rockets' only hits.

"Emily did a great job," Maisto said. "She got us out of a lot of innings. When we needed a big strikeout or something she did it. We just need to work on our defense a little and hitting and getting our bunts down. We didn't get the timely hits we needed."