Softball: Burlington Central 2nd, West Aurora 3rd at Fox Valley tourney

Burlington Central showed just how good it can be Saturday at the seventh annual Fox Valley tournament at Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora.

Unfortunately the Rockets realized there still is work to do, especially with consistency.

Emily Kisch tossed a gem in the semifinals and her defense made all the plays behind her as the Rockets handed Hannah Beatus and West Aurora its first loss of the season, 1-0.

But coming back in the championship game to play an Oswego team that entered the tournament at 1-6, the Rockets made 2 errors and suffered a bad break when Kisch left the game with a tight quad in a 3-2 loss.

Burlington Central (10-3) settles for second in the tournament.

"It's kind of tough," Kisch said. "I feel we didn't have the momentum that game like we did against West Aurora."

The only run of the game against the Blackhawks came in the fourth. Kristina Ahlers bunted for a hit and moved to second when Gretchen Schrubbe was hit by a pitch. Danielle Yurgil walked to load the bases with no outs, and after a strikeout, Rockets coach Erica Maisto aggressively sent Ahlers home on Jill Neisendorf's groundout to second base.

West Aurora outhit Burlington Central 6-3 and made several loud outs that the Rockets outfield ran down. That included the final out of the game when right fielder Kassie Kramer caught a screamer from Cara Jimenez with the tying run standing at second base.

While Sarah Kinney made a diving catch in center against Oswego in the title game, the Rockets weren't as sharp as they were earlier in the day.

"It's unbelievable to play such a good game like that and then come back (and struggle)," Maisto said. "Our defense was so sound that first game it was disappointing not to be able to transfer that over to this one."

Jessica Vargas had 2 hits for West Aurora. Beatus struck out 12 and walked 2; Kisch had 5 strikeouts and 2 walks.

"I used a lot of my rise ball and curve the first time through the order and then I went to my changeup the second time and then mixed up my pitches and high and low the third time," Kisch said. "I'm really happy my defense was there to back me up."

The Rockets threw Ashley Ratliff in the championship game. Oswego scored twice in the third; Burlington Central tied the game in the fifth on hits from Yurgil, Neisendorf and Kinney.

The Panthers plated the deciding run in the bottom of the fifth, a rally aided by a 2-out error that would have ended the inning.

"Our defense was so solid the first game and then we come back and were missing a grounder or we leave the base early, things like that where you have to mentally focus weren't there," Maisto said. "It's April and hopefully we'll feed off this and learn from our mistakes and move on."

Kisch, the Rockets' leadoff hitter, left the game in the third after grounding out to shortstop. Her turn in the lineup came up with a runner on third base in the fifth and with runners at first and second in the seventh, and each time Panthers freshman pitcher Jenny Veber was able to retire the Rockets.

"Her quad was tight," Maisto said. "I said it's one game, it's not worth it to blow it for May for one game here. I just wanted to be smart."

Veber pitched all three games in the tournament for Oswego (4-6).

"She did great, she hit her spots and was working a good combination of pitches," Oswego coach Amanda Stanton said. "She clearly has confidence in what she's throwing."

West Aurora (9-1) rebounded from the loss to Burlington Central by beating Yorkville 7-2 in the third-place game. Grace Hunger led the Blackhawks with 3 hits and Victoria Harkless drove in 2.

Libby Zoppa and freshman Payton Lundberg both pitched 3 innings for the Blackhawks; Lundberg fanned 7.

Kaneland (9-6) won twice on Saturday, beating Rosary 8-2 and then winning a slugfest 15-12 over Batavia in the fifth-place game.

The Knights jumped on the Royals with 3 runs in the first inning. Lexi Abruzzo (3-for-4, 2 runs), Hannah Theobald (3-for-4), Morgan Weber (2-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI) and MaryLynn Clausen (3 RBI) provided the offense for winning pitcher Courtney Davis (complete game, 0 earned runs, 3 strikeouts).

Kaneland took an early lead against Batavia on Weber's first-inning home run, but Batavia came back with a 7-run fourth inning to lead 11-4. Kaneland answered with 5 runs in the fourth and 3 in the fifth and 3 in the sixth for the comeback win, capitalizing on 5 Batavia errors.

Aly Jesionowski (2 hits, 4 runs), Abruzzo (2 hits, 3 runs), Weber (3 RBI), Theobald (3 hits, 2 runs, 3 RBI) and Rachel Goress (2 hits, 3 runs) led Kaneland with Davis again earning the win pitching the final 4 innings.

Lauren Wencewicz, Alyssa Klemm and Rachael Lovestrand all homered for Batavia. Wencewicz had 3 hits, and Toni Galas, Jaelen Lisberg, Breiann Cruz and Ashley McNamara all had 2 hits.

Rosary (4-9) bounced back from the loss to Kaneland by scoring 3 runs in the top of the seventh inning for a 5-4 win over Metea Valley in the seventh-place game.