Softball: Schuler puts the pop in another Antioch victory

Jacey Schuler whipped pitches in Antioch on Thursday afternoon.

The deafening pop sound each made — with the accompaniment of sophomore catcher Addison Webb’s mitt — could probably be heard in downstate O’Fallon.

Or maybe even in East Lansing, Michigan, where the Michigan State-bound Schuler, Antioch’s senior ace, likely will harm more eardrums.

“It’s a scary sound,” Sequoits softball coach Anthony Rocco said after his reigning Class 3A runners-up defeated visiting Grayslake North 8-0 in a Northern Lake County Conference matchup.

“Jacey’s fastball,” Antioch sophomore shortstop Claire Schulyer added, “could definitely break some blood vessels.”

The predominant sound in the top of the sixth inning, with Schuler in the pitcher’s circle at McMillen Field, was applause. But not because Schuler had recorded her 15th strikeout after having allowed only 1 hit and 1 walk in 6⅓ innings.

Schuler had just notched her 900th varsity strikeout.

Rocco then made a pitching change, triggering more rounds of applause as his exceptional hurler — make that softball player — walked toward the hosts’ dugout.

“One of the best two-way players in the state,” Rocco said of Schuler, who has a ridiculously high varsity batting average of .500.

Antioch (7-1, 1-1 in the NLCC), ranked No. 1 in the Daily Herald’s Softball Top 20, was coming off a 5-3 loss to host Grayslake Central on Tuesday.

“We said, before today’s game, ‘Let’s brush that loss off, erase it from our memories,’” Schuler said.

It’ll be hard to forget the play Schulyer made at short in the top of the first inning with one out. Grayslake North sophomore third baseman Jane Pritchard ripped a shot that had the potential to turn Schulyer’s glove into tattered leather, even off a bounce.

But the slick fielder squeezed the short-hop bullet calmly after sliding to her right, popped right back up and fired a throw to Sequoits senior first baseman Grace Green to retire Pritchard, who also happened to flash some serious leather Thursday.

“We’ve had a history of great shortstops at Antioch, and now we have Claire,” Rocco said. “She’s not only super defensively; she’s a five-tool player.”

Schulyer’s aluminum implement blasted a second-inning triple and later knocked in 3 of the Sequoits’ 8 runs, beginning with her 2-run single in the third that stretched the lead to 4-0; sophomore third baseman Samantha Hillner and sophomore second baseman Jadynn Ruiz had each lofted a sacrifice fly to score the first two runs.

Schulyer’s sac fly in the bottom of the sixth scored the final run under gray skies.

Knights sophomore second baseman Alyson Alvarenga broke up Schuler’s perfect-game bid in the top of the fifth with a walk, and Grayslake North senior first baseman Brody Moormeier — a first-year varsity player — led off the next inning and struck a sharp single to right off a high, outside fastball for the visitors’ lone hit.

“That was an amazing swing, an awesome hit,” Grayslake North coach Amanda Rodriguez said after her club slipped to 1-6, 0-3.

Green tapped a fifth-inning squeeze bunt to bring in the sixth run. An ensuing error allowed another run to score shortly thereafter.

Sequoits senior outfielder Aubrey Ultsch doubled to left-center in the fourth; freshman Tegan Schuler singled to pack the bases ahead of Ruiz’s sac fly; and sophomore lefty reliever Lillie Glenn got the final 2 outs.

“We put the ball in play and we executed our small ball well today,” Rocco said.

“Crisp game,” he added.