Softball: Barrington's bats come alive in win over Elk Grove
Two hall of famers - Elk Grove's Ken Grams and Barrington's Perry Peterson - owned a combined 1,873 wins in 71 seasons when they faced off Tuesday as the No. 1 and 2 winningest active softball coaches in Illinois.
"That's unbelievable," said two-year starting Barrington sophomore catcher Emma Kavanagh. "They truly love it and it shows. All we can do is help them win more games. We're trying to add on to coach Peterson's wins."
Kavanagh did her best to do exactly that.
The No. 3 hitter reached base in all five of her at-bats and went 4-for-5, missing her first cycle by a triple, to help lead Barrington to a season-high in runs and hits (16) as the Fillies earned a 22-8 five-inning Mid-Suburban League triumph.
In the process, Kavanagh walloped her 22nd homer of her career (17 as a freshman and five this spring) to tie 1994 alum Ashley Berggren for second in program history behind 2013 grad Loren Krzysko who clubbed 42.
The all-time state record belongs to Bailey Dowling (2019 St. Joseph-Ogden grad) who belted 65 and currently has five this season for Alabama.
"Emma is a phenomenal high school softball player," said Peterson, a veteran of 31 seasons with 883 wins.
"The conditions were tough today with a lot of wind. We're always going to have good games with Elk Grove because they are such good competitors."
Barrington (8-2, 2-0) led 6-0 after Kavanagh's towering 3-run homer to center field in the top of the second.
The Grens (2-3, 0-2) came back with 4 runs in the bottom half, getting RBI singles by Lexi Goeringer, Bella Rosario and senior receiver Bella Reid, who would have been 2-for-2 if not for a beautiful one-handed leaping grab by Fillies center fielder Mimi Cline near the fence in the fourth inning.
Led by the bats of Kavanagh, Amanda Glowacki (3-for-3, 3 RBI), Brynn Nevers (2-for-2, 2 RBI), winning pitcher Allie Goodwin (2-for-2, 2 walks, 2 RBI), Ainsley Muno (2-for-2, RBI) and Ellie Wintringer (2-for-2, 2 RBI), the Fillies pulled away with 8 runs in the fourth inning and 5 in the fifth.
"It was like a football score," said Kavanagh who collected a career-high 6 RBI. "We battled, and they battled. It was a full-team effort. We wanted to get 15 runs and we got 22."
Elk Grove leadoff batter Sabrina Lehnert went 2-for-3 while Ava Engwall belted a 3-run double to center in the Grens' 4-run fourth inning.
"We know we have the ability to hit and field but it just didn't really come out this game," said Reid, who caught three pitchers. "It is a rough outing but it's only one game. We'll take this as a learning experience. We'll take what we learned here and take it into our next couple of practice and games."
"We swung the bats well against a good pitcher," said Grams, whose 990 wins in 40 seasons are only 54 shy of the record in Illinois by St. Joseph-Ogden's Randy Wolken who retired in 2018 with 1,044. "And I'm pleased with the progress there. However the thorn in our side is that we're allowing more than three outs an inning. In other words, unearned runs have cost us in each of our losses so we have to shore that up.
"I don't think our pitchers are throwing poorly by any means. They had to face eight or nine batters in an inning and that makes it a long game. We're making progress in some areas and we've got to work in others."