Softball: St. Charles East upsets Fremd to reach sectional final

Since taking over the program in 2016, Jarod Gutesha has taken his St. Charles East softball team to eight sectionals.

Also the school's girls golf coach, Gutesha will look for a sectional hole-in-one on Friday when his team will play for the Class 4A Fremd title.

After a leadoff home run by Vikings second baseman Amanda Poniecki, Saints junior Makayla Van Dinther (10-9) quickly settled down and her No. 6-seeded team rallied for a tense 3-2 win over No. 1 Fremd on Tuesday in Palatine.

The Saints (23-15) will face the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between No. 2 St. Charles North (22-9) and No. 5 South Elgin (28-4).

"Their pitcher (Southern Illinois-bound senior Hailey Lucas) was very good and we knew we had to come out with our best stuff today and that's exactly what we did," said Saints third baseman Holly Smith, whose heads-up baserunning in the seventh inning proved to be the decisive run. "We just had to keep up our energy. That's been our biggest thing the whole playoff season. And Makayla pitched great."

Smith led off the top of the seventh with a walk. She stole second but Lucas got the next two batters with a popout and one of her 13 strikeouts that gave her a single-season program record 309.

That's when No. 9 hitter Morgan Beers beat out an infield grounder and the alert Smith hustled all the way home from second base for the 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

Fremd (28-6) gave it a big shot in the bottom of the seventh, getting its first two runners on base (second and third) with a double from Avery Sadorf and single to center by Claire Kanupke.

Saints shortstop Addison Wolf (2-for-2 at the plate) then made a great over-the-shoulder catch while running into center field on a blooper for the first out.

Emily Usalis followed with a line drive single to left, a ball that Eden Corcoran made a great diving try, to score Sadorf and make it 3-2 with one out and sending Gutesha to the mound.

"Makayla did a wonderful job settling down after that," Gutesha said. "I went out there and could see in her face she was locked and was like 'Coach, let's just play some more ball'."

Gutesha was right on target about his right-hander, as Van Dinther struck out the next two batters to send the Saints to the sectional title game.

"We talked all game about being resilient," said Fremd coach Josh Teschner, who also got a double from sophomore Audrie Corrado. "You know you're playing a great team and a great program in St. Charles East. We just tried to fight all game long and at the end we loved the fact that they went down swinging, being resilient and trying to fight back into the game."

SCE got back into the game in the bottom of the fifth when Smith led off with a double to left center, stole third and came home on a wild pitch for a 1-1 tie.

After the double, Lucas struck out three straight batters.

But the Saints came back to get their first lead in the top of the sixth when Corcoran led off with a triple to right. Hayden Sujack's sacrifice fly to right made it 2-1.

"There was definitely a momentum switch after that we tied the game," Van Dinther said. "We were like 'Hey, we got this' and we all believed in each other."

"When we gave up a leadoff home run, we just had to move on," Gutesha added. "Makayla did a great job after that, not giving up another run until the last inning."

One play that helped that cause was when centerfielder Beers threw out a runner at the plate trying to score on Penelope Schmidt' single up the middle.

Beers quickly moved forward on the ball and threw a strike to the South Carolina-bound Hayden Sujack, who tagged the runner out for the final out of the inning.

"Morgan (Beers) made a perfect throw and that was a huge play," Gutesha said.

Fremd was without its All-Area centerfielder Taylor Piento, who Teschner learned had mononucleosis roughly an hour before the game.

"You can't replace Taylor Piento," Teschner said. "I think the other girls who filled in did a great job, moving to some different positions and trying to do everything they could to help.

"Amanda (Poniecki, who went 2-for-3 replacing Piento in the leadoff spot) leading off the game for us with a homer was incredible.

"But you can't replace the heartbeat that is Taylor Piento and at the very least the last two years, probably three, has been our engine. As she goes, we go. She is our loudest voice in the dugout. She is our most consistent leader in the outfield. All communication starts and ends with Taylor. To not have Taylor breaks my heart for her. It has nothing to do with the outcome of the game but for the human being that she is. She deserved to go down swinging as well but she was in the dugout cheering as loud as she could, It was impressive."

Also impressive was Lucas (19-6), who finished her career second all-time in strikeouts behind 2010 graduate Lena Brottman.

"Hailey did what she has all season," Teschner said of her 6-hitter and 13 strikeouts on Tuesday. "I don't think I can send enough flowers her way but Hailey was one of the top two or three players in the history of the program. She and Lena Brottman are the top two pitchers. Hailey keeps us in games and loves the opportunity to do so. It was great to watch her work."

Lucas averaged a program record 13 strikeouts per game this spring.

"She is remarkable, " Teschner said. "It's always hard to finish your season but finishing at home softened the blow. You look up in the stands, you see your family, you see the alumni that have come back and we had many here. And for our staff, this is the most wins we've had. It's been fun."