Softball: Orel's exploits power Prospect's win

After giving up 22 runs one day earlier, one thing Prospect's softball team did not want to see on Thursday was more runners on base.

Junior Jackie Orel sure did her part in that regard.

The Knights junior receiver threw out three runners trying to steal second base in the Knights' 8-4 bounce-back win at Rolling Meadows.

Oh, and one more thing.

Orel had the game-winning RBI in the fourth inning.

Her one-out line drive single to center scored Lauren Caldrone from second base for a 1-0 lead that the Knights never relinquished in improving to 5-5 overall and 2-4 in the Mid-Suburban East.

"Jackie had a phenomenal game," said first-year Prospect coach Krystina Leazer. "Her defense helped us keeping runners off base."

That was crucial after the 22-2 loss to Hersey.

"We said we needed 'short term memory' " Leazer said. "We had to forget about that game and put in the past."

"To bounce back for a conference win feels good," Orel said. "We just put Wednesday's game behind us. We had to swing at a lot more pitches than we did in that game (vs. Hersey). We were looking at too many strikes."

Orel caught plenty of strikes from freshman Claire Doherty, the Knights freshman hurler who struck out three and raised her record to 5-3.

"She's (Doherty) doing fantastic," Orel said. "She hits her spots well and I have a lot of trust in her to do that."

The Knights have a lot of trust in Orel behind the plate, where on Thursday she threw to shortstop Caldrone to catch runners stealing in the first, second and sixth innings.

"I like the challenge of popping up and firing the ball," Orel said. "Even if she's not there, I just fire the ball to that spot and I know she will be there."

The Knights were where they wanted to be when they grabbed the 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Orel's base hit and a RBI single by Kaitlyn Pancini which brought home sophomore Madeline Borkowski (2-for-3, 3 RBI) made it 2-0.

The Knights added 4 more runs in the fifth, highlighted by Borkowski's first varsity homer, a 3-run two-out blast over over the left center field fence that drove in Caldrone (2-for-5, 2 RBI) and Colleen Palczysnki, who had singled.

Meadows cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of 3 walks ,an error and a base hit by Elizabeth Elkins.

Prospect made it 7-3 in the sixth on Caldrone's s two-out single to right that drove home Cassie Cuniff, who had a double in the previous inning.

The lead was extended to 8-3 in the top of the seventh when Eileen Donohue singled to right to drive in Alex Kanter (2-for-4), who had belted a one-out double to left center.

"We knew we had to put it all together," said Leazer, who also got a 2-for-3 effort from Cate Meersman in the No. 2 spot. "We had the bats and we got the defense we needed (no errors)."

The Mustangs (6-9, 1-3) scored their final run in the bottom of the seventh when Amanda Elkins belted a double off the centerfield fence and scored on her sister Elizabeth's single.

Elizabeth, the Mustangs catcher, went 2-for-3 with a walk and threw out a runner trying to steal second in the first inning.

Paige Connor, Mallory King and Caroline Slowik also had hits for Meadows which got six innings of work from pitcher Lydia Schulz (5-7).

"I thought Lydia battled hard," said Mustangs coach Tony Wolanski, who is only 4 wins away from 200 for his career. "It was the fourth straight day that she was pitching.

"We just made too many mistakes. We have to make better decisions and I have to do a better job as a coach. Give Prospect credit. They came up with the timely hits. We had chances but we did not get the timely hit."