Softball: Oswego hands Wheaton Warrenville South 1st loss

Aubriella Garza doesn’t have to worry too much when she runs into trouble in the pitcher’s circle.

Jaelynn Anthony has her back.

The two girls are an effective tag team for Oswego. Garza, a junior NIU recruit who also plays third base, usually gets the start and goes halfway through games. Anthony, a fireballing sophomore and shortstop, finishes up.

“I’d say she has different speed than I do,” Garza said. “We both have good spin.”

Both Oswego pitchers were at their best Saturday in their most pressure-filled situations. Previously unbeaten Wheaton Warrenville South put runners on base in all but one inning, but Garza and Anthony bore down in those spots to pitch Oswego to a 6-2 win over the visiting Tigers.

Garza went three innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Anthony came on the fourth and threw four shutout innings, allowing four hits with five strikeouts. Together they stranded nine WW South runners on base.

Fittingly, the game ended with Anthony coaxing a hard-hit ball to Garza, who stepped on the third-base bag and fired to first for a double play.

How to handle such hot moments? It starts with trust.

“It’s all in the moment,” Garza said. “You have to focus on the present and you have to realize that you have teammates behind you that know what they’re doing. I trust everything I have and I trust my catcher and trust my staff and Jae.”

Garza and Anthony both also pitched last year, but Oswego coach Paul Netzel said the roles are a little more preset at this point.

“This year our pitching coach wants it a different way. It’s almost like a starter and a closer,” Netzel said. “Aubriella has a little more spin on her ball and works the outside a little better. Jae just comes in with the raw power. We save Jae for the speed. She’s been hitting in the mid 60s and most high school kids can’t catch up to that.”

Anthony said it doesn’t take her long to get up to speed once she moves from shortstop to the circle. She didn’t need long Saturday, working a perfect fourth with two strikeouts in her first inning. WW South (7-1) put four runners on off her the next three innings but she skated clear.

“I’m in the game because I’m playing shortstop so I know the situation,” Anthony said. “I know the hitters so I just throw the ball and hope for the best, and do good. We just throw hard, spin the ball and trust each other.”

The day was a special one for Oswego softball.

Prior to the game a ceremony was held celebrating the dedication of Panther Memorial Field, in honor of late Oswego softball coach Amanda Stanton and Oswego softball player DeAnn Albright. A huge crowd was on hand, with the teams lining the base paths. Albright’s dad and Stanton’s brother addressed the crowd.

“It was really heartwarming,” Garza said. “I didn’t get to meet Stanton or Albright but they were amazing players from what I heard. I enjoyed to see everybody as a community come together and be one.”

Oswego (6-3) jumped out early with two runs in the first inning and one in the second for a 3-0 lead. Kaylee LaChappell led off the Oswego first with a double down the third base line and scored on Kiyah Chavez’s squeeze bunt. Marissa Moffett, who reached base three times, scored on a double steal. Anthony doubled to lead off the second and scored on Ella Boling’s two-out single.

Oswego broke the game open with three in the fifth, Moffett scoring on Garza’s hard-hit infield single.

“They [WW South] had the target on their back, being 7-0,” Netzel said. “We put a statement out there that we think we’re one of the better teams in the conference, and we’re going to show it today.”

WW South scratched across its two runs in the third to close within 3-2. Parker Leonard, who later just missed a homer to center, doubled in Abby Mease and Becca Chaney singled in Leonard.

Other than that, though, the Tigers couldn’t get the big hit with runners on. In the sixth, with runners on first and second, the speedy Mease was just beaten out on a close play at first on an infield grounder.

Still, WW South coach Jeff Pawlak left the field in a good place.

“We’d reeled off seven straight wins and I’m really more proud of this,” he said. “That [Oswego] is a darn good team. We didn’t come out ready to play a little bit in the first, but no heads down. We had really good competitive at bats for the most part.”

It shouldn’t surprise. WW South last year reached a sectional final on the same Oswego field. All but shortstop Katie Jensen returned from that team.

“It’s such a good group of girls. They have expectations and they know what to do,” Pawlak said. “A ton of senior experience, they lead by example and the other girls follow.”