Softball: Hersey rallies for 13-12 victory over Elk Grove

Prior to Monday's Mid-Suburban East softball game, Hersey softball coach Molly Freeman, assistant Jessica Franco and the entire Huskies team walked over to the visitors dugout to congratulate Elk Grove coach Ken Grams on a thrilling day last Saturday when he won his 999th and 1,000th game.

Then Freeman and the host Huskies won a thrilling 13-12 game themselves.

Grams' Grenadiers came back from an 11-2 deficit with 9 runs in the top of the fifth and 1 in the top of the sixth to take a 12-11 lead.

But the Huskies (16-4, 8-3) scored twice in the bottom of the sixth for the winning margin.

Amanda Frankenberger started the winning rally with a walk and Amelia Meyer singled to right. Kate Adamski's perfect bunt down the first base line advanced the runners to second and third and each scored on passed balls to make it 13-12.

"That was a huge bunt by Kate to advance those runners," said Freeman, whose team had 8 doubles in the game.

"Elk Grove always has big bats and they were coming off a big weekend," Freeman added. "You don't always win pretty. All that mattered is that we came out with the win. We have a big week coming and we're just going to stick with it and keep trying to do all we can to stay in the conference race (trailing Buffalo Grove by one game in the loss column)."

Huskies reliever Easha Patel entered in the top of the seventh and picked up the save. She got the first two batters on a fly out to left and a strikeout.

But the pesky Grens (12-9, 5-5) made things dramatic to the end, getting singles from Ariana Trausch (2-for-5, RBI) and Ava Engwall (3-for-4, 3 RBI), who robbed Livia Christopher (2-for-4, 2 RBI, double) of a hit in the first inning with a catch while falling to her knees in center field.

Trausch and Engwall were on second and third with two outs when Patel got the final batter on a groundout to first baseman Frankenberger.

"Easha usually closes for us," Freeman said. "She gives Sabrina (DiVito, Hersey starter who is 16-4) a little break there."

Hersey batters were not giving much of a break to the Elk Grove defense, clubbing 8 doubles in the first five innings, including three straight doubles in the first inning by Brooke Sharlau, DiVito (2-for-4, double, 2 RBI) and Val Allen that led to a 2-1 lead.

Sharlau wound up 4-for-4 with 4 doubles and 2 RBI.

"She's a hitter, she gets the most out of her swings," Freeman said of the junior third baseman. "She gets up there, sees the ball and rips it."

"Every hit felt really good," Sharlau said of her big offensive day. "It was tough when they came back and got the lead but we just had to come back and stay in it. I think we did well at the end and Easha did really well closing it out. Elk Grove is very good so I'm glad we won."

Grans (1,000-400 in 40 seasons) could not recall his team making up such a large deficit after the fourth inning in his long hall of fame career.

Trailing 11-2, Sabina Lehnert (2-for-5) and starting pitcher Lexi Goeringer (4-for 5, 2 doubles) homered back-to-back for the final 2 runs of the 9-run fifth inning.

Other multiple hitters for EG were relief pitcher Isabella Rosario (3-for-4, double) and Amanda Koszewski (2-for-4, 2 RBI), who would have had a third hit if not for Shaily Patel's terrific diving catch to her right in the fourth inning.

"I don't remember ever coming back from that big of a deficit and taking the lead that late in a game," Grams said. "It was a heck of an inning (7 hits from 12 batters). Hersey is a team that can score runs so we had to stay in the game. Even in that last inning, we hit the ball well. We had our chances but we didn't stop them enough. They scored in every inning but one."