Softball: Howe pitches St. Charles East to sweep of St. Charles North
Following a 4-0 victory over St. Charles North on Wednesday, St. Charles East assistant coach Max Payleitner teased Chelsea Campagna that next practice she'll be working on her home run trot.
There are worse things to work on.
Campagna was all smiles after breaking out of a slump with one of the Saints' 3 home runs to complete a season sweep over their cross-town rivals. It was the first of the year for the sophomore third baseman.
"I haven't got a lot of hits lately and it felt so good to get one out there for my team and get the rhythm going," Campagna said. "It was unfortunate I had to get in a slump but I think I'm back now and ready to do well."
Campagna's blast came in the fifth inning and made it 3-0. Lauren Luna belted the first home run of the day, her eighth of the season, in the second inning.
Maddy Stout's seventh homer, also a solo shot, gave St. Charles East a 2-0 lead in the third inning.
St. Charles East (17-8, 8-3 in the DuKane Conference) has 27 home runs this year. After being shut out by Geneva on Monday, the Saints bounced back by beating conference-leading Lake Park on Tuesday and then their rival Wednesday.
"Definitely a couple good days," Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. "Don't like to live and die by the longball but the longball does happen a lot in this game."
Freshman Izzy Howe only needed one of those homers to beat St. Charles North (8-8, 4-4).
Howe dominated, striking out 14. The North Stars didn't get a hit until Ashlee Chantos singled to center in the sixth. Danielle Trumbo also had a two-out single in the seventh before Howe ended the game getting the final out with an off-speed pitch for a strikeout.
"I was just trying to throw strike after strike," Howe said. "I thought they would be hitting off me but my curve ball was definitely working."
Howe improved to 6-1 with her 2-hit shutout as she continues to provide the Saints with a talented 1-2 punch with sophomore Katie Arrambide.
"She's definitely capable," Gutesha said. "We've seen that from her. There's other times she's come in and shut things down. It's one of those things where Katie has absorbed a ton of innings. Izzy was ready to go today and took advantage of it."
Anastasia Pappas took the loss for St. Charles North, allowing 9 hits including 2 each to Alex Wooten and Howe.
"If you make any mistake with them there's a chance they put it over the fence and that's what they did today," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We're a lot better than we showed. We expect more out of ourselves. Our timing was off. We looked like we were guessing. She (Howe) was hitting outer half consistently and we really didn't get any good contact."