Softball: Jimenez sisters power Warren past Antioch
As the oldest of two Jimenezes on Warren's softball team, Erika Jimenez sets a good example for her sister Kassie.
Put school before sports.
And, especially with two runners on base against one of the best teams in Lake County, hit the ball deep to right-center and let the wind carry it over the fence.
"She's got to learn from somewhere," Erika Jimenez, a senior, joked of her kid sister, a sophomore.
Antioch learned a lesson Friday at its home park: Allow Warren's slugging team to have extra outs in an inning, and you'll pay a heavy price. Warren took advantage of 4 costly Antioch errors, hit 3 homers in an 11-run fifth and won 17-7 in five innings in a matchup between two of the county's best programs.
The Jimenez sisters led the way, as the Blue Devils improved to 15-2, while dropping Antioch to 18-2-2 and snapping the Sequoits' 10-game winning streak. Both sisters hit 3-run homers in the top of the fifth. Cleanup-hitting Erika Jimenez added an RBI single in the inning and finished 2-for-5 with 4 RBI. Kassie Jimenez went 3-for-3 with 6 RBI from the No. 9 spot in the batting order. Her two-out, 3-run double in the third snapped a 2-2 tie.
"I was just happy we both contributed to the win," Kassie Jimenez said. "That's all that matters."
Two Jimenezes on Warren are better than none. While Kassie wasn't on the varsity last year, Erika was throwing the shot and discus for the Blue Devils' track and field team. She had played varsity softball as a sophomore but didn't go out for the team last spring.
"My workload for school was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, and I really wanted the time to focus on my schooling because that's just what's more important to me," said Erika Jimenez, who's headed to the University of South Florida in Tampa, where she plans to study engineering. "It's much easier this year. There's no SAT, I'm in fewer AP classes, and I'm in my college already. So I was like, we can do (softball) this year."
Yes, Kassie learns from her big sister - certainly on the diamond.
"I just know she's selective with her pitches, and that's what I focused on today," said Kassie Jimenez, whose homer was her second of the season, while Erika guesses her long ball was her eighth or ninth.
Antioch got home runs from Megan Lawrence and starting pitcher Rilee Schreiner. Lawrence's opposite-field shot to right field with a runner on base in the fourth made it 6-4. Schreiner hit a solo shot in the fifth. Piper Foote's two-out, 2-run double in the fourth pulled the Sequoits even at 6-6.
Antioch coach Anthony Rocco said he's shutting down ace Jeri Bonaguidi for a week due to soreness in her hip. He knows he needs the junior righty healthy for the final month of the season.
"Tuesday against Wauconda we could see her wincing a little bit," Rocco said.
The Sequoits coach has full confidence in the sophomore Schreiner, who entered Friday's game with a 0.50 ERA in 28 innings. The Blue Devils touched her for 11 runs in 4-plus innings, but only 4 runs were earned.
"Rilee pitched great," Rocco said. "With her style of pitching, it's supposed to be a lot of groundballs, and that's what happened. We just didn't field them. We got to make those outs because it eliminates (Warren's) looks. Maybe she's going through the lineup only two or three times. They started adjusting well to her. You got to give them credit."
Warren's 11-run fifth started with Kassie Jimenez drawing a walk before Brooke Mangler hit her first homer of the season, a shot over the 195-foot sign down the right-field line. Three batters later, Erika Jimenez thought she popped up to right-center, but the ball carried over the fence. Kassie Jimenez's homer traveled to nearly the same spot.
Mangler (3-for-5), Erika Jimenez and winning pitcher Caitlyn Britton (2-for-4, double) each had 2 hits in the inning.
"We seem to do that," said Warren coach Jenna Charbonneau, whose team also got 2 hits apiece in the game from Emily Craig, Kayla Nommensen and Kayla Hopkins. "We jump out all in one inning and really get after it."