Trip paying dividends for Lake Park

It was clear which softball team played in Tennessee over spring break and which has had more cancellations than games played.

Lake Park played crisp and crafty in a 10-1 nonconference victory Friday at Glenbard South.

"Absolutely, I would definitely say that the trip down South was a big benefit for us in this game," said Lake Park coach James Chellson. "It pays dividends. The kids had that relaxed feeling now because they're like, all right, it's midway through the season for us at this point, whereas it's still fresh for them."

Lake Park (6-2) scored all the runs required in the first inning. Batting cleanup, Lancers pitcher Emily Frank (4-1) scored Abby Rodriguez with a blast to the center field fence 210 feet away. Alyssa Sturino coaxed a walk and Frank and Sturino scored on Gianna Frale's slap up the middle for a 3-0 lead.

A junior right-hander, Frank didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning and gave up 4 hits and 1 run in five innings. Shortstop Rodriguez, who belted a triple, came in to strike out four of the six batters she faced.

"I was working my screwball and my curveball most of the time," Frank said. "I think we did a great job. We stayed up the whole time, we had a lot of energy."

Lake Park led 5-0 before Glenbard South (1-3) scored in the fourth, and the Lancers added a 5-run fifth. Lake Park capitalized on 4 errors that led to 9 unearned runs against Raiders pitchers Ella Little and starter Lexi Jaster (0-1).

Weathered out six times already, errors didn't frost Raiders coach Julie Fonda as much as Lake Park's ability to take extra bases by surprise, such as when Arianna Sanchez scored all the way from first on Kayla Pisauro's single.

"It's not that they don't expect it, they know it's part of the game because that's how I coach them. To let it happen to us, that was pretty mind-blowing in my opinion. That was hard to swallow," Fonda said.

Glenbard South played more to its pedigree the last two innings, when first baseman Bailee Flanagan handled a foul pop, then threw to catcher Sarah Marsden to deny a Lancer attempting to score.

Flanagan also cracked a double and scored the Raiders' run on Elizabeth Cizek's line single.

"You think about the things you can improve on personally and as a team and just (go) into the next practice with the mentality of that," Flanagan said. "There's some positives you learn from every experience."