Softball: Oswego East's sister act sinks Batavia
Batavia had enough to overcome one Schultz Saturday in the championship game of the Class 4A Oswego East regional.
Two Schultz's was a little too much.
Emily Schultz, a senior headed to Stanford, held Batavia to 4 hits while her sister Ashley, a junior going to Northwestern, belted an early 3-run home run, and Oswego East went on to a 6-2 victory.
No. 3 seed Oswego East (24-5) advances to the Class 4A Oswego sectional where they will play No. 2 Downers Grove North on Wednesday.
Batavia, the 11th seed who upset No. 6 Wheaton Warrenville South Tuesday to reach the championship game, ends its season at 20-13.
"We put up a really good fight," Batavia senior leadoff hitter Jaelen Lisberg said. "This is a really good team offensively and defensively. We went hard and I'm really proud of the team."
Batavia starter Sammi Wicks traded goose eggs with Emily Schultz until the bottom of the third. After a leadoff single, Emily Schultz reached on an error to put two runners on for her sister, and she hit a towering home run over the left-field fence for a 3-0 lead.
"That was huge," Oswego East coach Mark Green said. "That's something we've come to expect from Ashley. I think it kind of relaxed us a little and let us do our thing."
Batavia quickly got back in the game in the top of the fourth. Kaylan Waldron walked and advanced to third on a double by freshman Cassidy Carby. Allison Bahlmann singled home a run and Hanna Mackowiak plated another on a groundout to pull Batavia within 3-2.
Another error led to an unearned run for the Wolves in the fourth and a 4-2 lead, but Batavia had a chance to take the lead in the fifth. Lisberg singled, Carby walked and Bahlmann was hit by a pitch to load the bases with 2 outs before Emily Schultz escaped the jam by inducing a pop-up.
Batavia left 9 runners on base to just 3 for Oswego East.
"We just have to come through with the big hit," Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos said. "We had our opportunities. I knew facing a pitcher like this, she's not going to give you many opportunities. If you get runners on base you have to come through with that big hit."
Oswego East scored 2 more runs in the fifth to make it 6-2 with Ashley Schultz again providing the key blow with an RBI double down the left-field line.
Batavia drew 6 walks against Emily Schultz, and 2 more batters were hit by a pitch. Bahlmann was the only Bulldog with multiple hits, going 2-for-3.
Green credited the Bulldogs with good at-bats against his ace.
"Batavia gave us all we could handle," Green said. "Tough situations we had to get out of. Credit them. They put some good at-bats, fouled some pitches off, took some close pitches. That's playoff softball."
The game might have been the final one as Batavia coach for Castellanos, whose team defeated St. Charles North twice and Geneva and got better throughout its 20-win season.
"I haven't made a final decision (on leaving)," Castellanos said. "It's something I'm thinking about. I didn't want to worry about that during the season.
"I thought we had a great season. We got off to a slow start trying to find our stride, trying to find the lineup we were going to go with but toward the middle of the season we got hot. We got on a nice little streak. We battled today, we gave ourselves a chance to win."