Softball: Barrington's offense explodes in win over Fremd
The Mid-Suburban West softball showdown between Barrington and visiting Palatine is set for Thursday.
But first, the Fillies put on another show offensively against Fremd, the third-place team in the West.
Getting home runs from Katherine Stagnito (fifth of the season), Kendall Peterson (10th) and Tori Meyer (second), Barrington topped the Vikings 11-1 in five innings at the Fields of Dreams on Wednesday.
The Fillies also stopped Fremd five days earlier, 13-2 (five innings), for the Vikings' first home field loss this season.
Meyer (2-0) and Jackie Albrecht combined for a 4-hitter Wednesday as the Fillies improved to 21-3 and 12-1, trailing Palatine (21-2, 13-0) by one game with three left to play.
"Four hits in the last three innings against great pitching is good," said Fremd coach Josh Teschner. "But when you're playing a team that is offensively explosive, you can't miss your spots. They (Barrington hitters) were looking for it, and they hit three homers again.
"For my money, they're the best team we've seen all year. And they prove it with their bats and whoever they put in the circle does a great job hitting her spots and not giving us much to work with."
The Fillies know they'll need another top game offensively and defensively to stop a Palatine club which they lost to 6-4 in a rain-shortened five-inning game last week.
"We're really excited," said Stagnito, who hit the first of back-to-back homers with Peterson in the Fillies' 4-run second inning. "We have to keep focused. It's really a big game for us. We've got to come ready and play well."
"Our goal is to always start the offense in the first inning," Murphy said.
That's exactly what the Fillies did on Wednesday as Stagnito walked and Peterson doubled to the right field fence to make it 1-0. With two outs, Gina Magro singled to center to score Peterson.
Murphy followed with a double to right-center before freshman Brynn Nevers' 2-run bloop single to right.
"We've got to come back ready to play (vs. Palatine)," Murphy added "We have to be ready to hit the ball and work together."
Peterson (2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Meyer (2-for-3, 2B, RBI) and Nevers (2-f-or-3, 2 RBI) were multiple hitters for the Fillies, who also got a hit from Leyden Atlas.
Collecting hits for Fremd (14-7, 10-4) were Kalyn McCarthy, Reagan Goluch, McKenna Schneider and Ava Jordan, who had an RBI single to score Elaina Kraus (reached on an error). Sophia Crescio drew a pair of walks in her 2 at-bats.
"We have to get better," said Teschner, who used Hailey Hazlett, Grace Hiller and Gina Dudley on the mound. "At some point in time, we've got to hit our spots. When you miss them, these things are going to happen.
"We look at every game as how are we getting better and what did we learn. And really, the last three innings we felt like we tried to adjust and tried to hit the ball the other way and work for some hits."