Softball: Sheehan escapes trouble, pitches South Elgin by Bartlett
Every time Bartlett batters thought they had figured out South Elgin pitcher Jenna Sheehan Tuesday, the right-hander managed to find a different way to frustrate them.
Bartlett had runners in scoring position in the first four innings of the Upstate Eight West Division conference contest — loading the bases in two frames — but only had four runs to show for it.
Sheehan’s gritty pitching plus playing sound fundamental softball and capitalizing on Hawks miscues led to a 14-4 five-inning South Elgin win.
Sheehan also had a good day at the plate, going 3 for 4, knocking in 2 runs and scoring twice.
“She probably didn't have her best stuff today but fought through it and battled with runners on base,” said South Elgin coach Brad Reynard. “And when we needed her to hit a pitch, she hit her spots.”
Bartlett took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Sheehan yielded a leadoff single to Abbey Wilkens and Callyn New followed with a double to center.
Suzie Piaskowski plated Wilkens with a sacrifice fly and New scored on Addie Moore’s ground out. The Hawks then loaded then the bases, but Sheehan ended the threat by with a strikeout.
South Elgin (11-2, 6-0) tied the game in its half of the second. Charlotte Rzenno opened the frame by drawing a walk, advanced to second on Ava Lazare’s sacrifice bunt, moved to third when Ryleigh Fagan reached on an error and scored on a passed ball during Mille Viruet’s at-bat. Fagan scored on Emma Bell’s ground out.
Sheehan’s leadoff single in the third started South Elgin’s rally that pushed four runs across the plate to put the Storm in front, 6-2. Rzenno scored the third run of the inning on a double steal during Fagan’s at-bat.
“There's a lot of ways that this team can win. We're so young that I like games when we face a little adversity,” Reynard said. “We did the little things today that we had to do to win.”
Bartlett got two runs back in its half of the third, but the rally ended there. With two outs and runners on second and third, New popped up to Sheehan to end the threat.
South Elgin extended its lead to 9-4 during its half of the fourth. Bartlett (6-11, 3-3) again threatened in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases with only one out but the Storm right-hander again ended the threat by getting out the next two batters.
The Storm scored five runs in the fifth to put the game away. With the bases loaded, Sheehan punched a single up the middle that plated Viruet and Bell. Liv Miller followed with a double to left that brought in Kaidence Rumachik and Sheehan. Miller scored the final run on an error.
“I feel like I was just seeing (the ball) well,” Sheehan said about her day at the plate. “I was seeing in and out. I could time the speed of my bat early.”
Sheehan’s only three-up, three-down inning was the fifth when she struck out the side.
“I liked our offense today. Other than the last inning, we had runners in scoring position, but didn't always knock them in,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “And I like the fact that we competed and we battled, even though we lost in the end by 10. But we’ve got to play clean ball — you can't walk people and you can't give up errors.”