Softball: Howe fans 13, pitches St. Charles East past SCN
Izzy Howe isn't exactly a fan of pitching in the rain.
"My hands get real sweaty when I pitch, so with the rain it's even worse," said Howe, St. Charles East's sophomore pitcher. "Thank God for dirt."
Howe had to deal with off and on rain Tuesday, a delayed start and a rocky first three batters, St. Charles North scoring a run before an out was even recorded.
Howe shook off all three, striking out 13 and the Saints' offense backed her up to beat the host North Stars 4-3 for St. Charles East's 12th straight win.
Howe, who has alternated with Katie Arrambide in a dynamite pitching tandem for the Saints this season, allowed four hits and threw four straight shutout innings after Leigh VandeHei tripled to lead off the North Stars' first inning and scored on a passed ball.
"We all have bad starts so I didn't let it affect me," Howe said. "I knew my team would help me out, get me some runs."
The game, a reschedule of a postponed game, started about 25 minutes late due to late-arriving umpires. St. Charles North's girls stayed loose with impromptu dancing in front of the dugout, while Howe kept pitching to keep her arm loose during the wait.
Things got tight when VanderHei tripled and scored, Ashlee Chantos singled and Julia Larson walked to start the St. Charles North first. But Howe coaxed a popup, and St. Charles East then caught a runner straying off third base in a rundown before Howe recorded an inning-ending strikeout to keep it 1-0.
"They had a lot of movement on the bases and to limit them to one run was a huge win for us to be just down 1-0," Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said.
It was the first of three outs on the bases for the North Stars (6-4, 4-2 DuKane Conference), who like the Saints play it very aggressively.
"It could have been a bigger inning in the first; I might have shut us down giving a bunt sign, we've done it in the past and sometimes you catch them off guard," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "If I could go back in time she's swinging away there."
The Saints (19-3, 9-1) came out swinging in the third inning, five straight batters reaching to go ahead 3-1. Kayla Richardson lined a bases-loaded single back through the box to bring in Mel Stathopoulos and Kati Gheorghe, and Chelsea Campagna singled to center to score Nikki Johnston.
"I trusted my hands because I have fast hands, saw the pitch and took it the way she threw it," Richardson said. "We have a rivalry and all but you just have to treat it like any other game, no pressure."
Johnston's two-out RBI single in the fourth made it 4-1, enough the way Howe was throwing. Howe struck out the side in the second, fifth, and again in the sixth despite giving up two runs in the inning.
"I knew what the ump was calling and what he wasn't calling so I had to get them in there where he was calling strikes," Howe said. "I usually throw inside sometimes, I wasn't getting the calls I wanted."
St. Charles North closed the lead to 4-3 in the sixth, Larson tripling in a run and scoring on a wild pitch, but Howe retired the last five batters she faced, four on strikeouts.
The game was the North Stars' sixth since returning from a COVID-19 quarantine, and they'll play nine more before the regular season's end May 29.
"They're learning from the experience. It's a good group," said Poulin, who plays just one senior, a few juniors and a bunch of sophomores. "This is a very young group, and they're going to be good. We squeeze all these games in before the tournament, this is a group that will be poised to make a run."
St. Charles East, likewise, is in the middle of a busy eight-game week, with a return game against St. Charles North Thursday and a rematch of the 2019 state championship game against Huntley Friday.
"The North game is always fun, doesn't matter what the records are," Gutesha said. "It's always down to the last out and the last pitch and that's exactly how this one was."