Softball: Oswego East routs Rosary
Rosary's softball team ran into an offensive buzz saw Tuesday afternoon.
After scoring 22 and 20 runs in its first two games last week, Oswego East (3-0) reached double figures for the third straight time during its 14-2 nonconference victory over the Royals (2-2) in Aurora.
The Wolves grabbed a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Juvia Davis and Mackenna Mittelstaedt clubbed a pair of 2-run home runs and Autumn Sullivan added an RBI single.
"We're a very talented group," said Wolves coach Mark Green. "When they get their pitch, they can hit it a long way."
Davis sliced a 1-0 pitch from Rosary's Sarah Willman well over the right-center fence to make it 2-0 before Mittelstaedt pulled a 2-1 offering to left field to extend the Wolves' lead to 4-0.
"Pitchers like going out there in the first inning when they haven't thrown a ball and they're up 5-0," said Green. "It makes it a little easier for them."
Oswego East added 4 more runs in the third, highlighted by Lauren Alesia's 2-run single and a 2-out, 2-run line drive single off the bat of junior first baseman Emily Schultz (3 for 5).
"They're a great team," Rosary coach Megan Tracy said of the Wolves. "You kind of have to find their weakness - changing speeds, coming up and in and low and away. You really just hope they miss."
Rosary got on the board in the fourth against Wolves starting pitcher Mittelstaedt.
Mikayla Cassidy led off with a single and after a fielder's choice, junior Krystal Cortes accounted for the Royals' offense by belting a 2-run home run to cut the deficit to 9-2.
"I was looking for something I could drive," Cortes said of the 3-1 pitch. "I was expecting something on the outer half of the plate. I felt it right off the bat. I felt it bounce off the barrel."
"She did a nice job," Tracy said of Cortes. "She has been swinging the bat well lately."
Junior Anna VanGundy (3 for 4, double) and Cortes (2 for 3) finished with 5 of the Royals' 10 base hits.
"It was a real testament to everybody because they never gave up," said Tracy. "Everybody kept trying to come back."
Freshman right-hander Abby Young slowed the Wolves down with back-to-back scoreless innings before the visitors struck for 5 more runs over the final 2 frames.
Mittelstaedt, who went 4 for 5 with 4 RBI at the plate, pitched the first 5 innings to record the win while southpaw Emily Schultz tossed a pair of scoreless innings of relief.
Oswego East finished with 18 hits.
"I thought we put good swings on the ball throughout the game facing a good team and a good pitcher," said Green.
Tracy found some solace from her team's defense, keyed by infielders Riley McCue and Cassidy.
"I didn't want to have any two-error innings because we've been fighting that," said the coach.