Softball: Fremd’s Kanupke carries on family tradition, throws gem to beat Prospect
Karen Stewart Kanupke had one of the strongest arms the Mid-Suburban League has seen when she played shortstop for Hersey High School in the 1990s.
Her daughter's arm isn't bad, either.
Fremd ace Molly Kanupke tossed a 4-hitter with 6 strikeouts Thursday to edge host Prospect 3-2 in a MSL West game that kept the Vikings in the race to compete among the final four for the conference championship in two weeks.
With Kanupke posting her fifth win of the season, the Vikings moved to 9-6 and 5-3 in the West, tied for second with Conant (12-4, 5-3).
Prospect also got a big pitching performance as Megan Maresco struck out 15 while tossing a 4-hitter.
"What a pitchers' duel," said Knights coach Krystina Mackowiak whose junior right-hander who was coming off a 16-strikeout performance against Hersey (6-2 win) on Tuesday. "Megan did great. She did everything she could do for us today."
The Vikings gave their senior right-hander Kanupke all 3 runs in the second inning.
Audrie Corrado led off with a walk and Amanda Poniecki (2-for-3) followed with a single. Corrado eventually scored on an error and Poniecki raced home on Emilia Sheridan's RBI double to deep right-center. Sheridan advanced to third on a throw to home plate and then scored on a wild pitch.
Prospect (9-9, 3-5) got within 3-1 in third inning when freshman Charlotte Machel doubled off the centerfield fence, went to third on a wild pitch and scored with two outs when Maggie Marchialette reached on an infield error.
The Knights got their second run in the sixth, thanks to Julia Nay's double to right center which scored Jackie Mercado who had a two-out pinch hit single to right.
In the bottom of the seventh, Taryn Sorenson led off with a deep drive to center field caught by Corrado just in front of the fence. Kanupke got the next two batters on a popup to second and a fly ball to left fielder Asha Shah.
"The biggest key is that I'm so comfortable pitching with my teammates behind me because I have a lot of trust in them," said Kanupke, whose mother Karen is a former head softball coach at Prospect and teaches math at the school.
Molly Kanupke tossed a no-hitter against the Knights in an 8-0 win the first time the teams played in Palatine.
"My teammates really give me confidence in myself," Molly said. "I know that if I just hit my spots and stay calm, my teammates will have my back."
And Fremd coach Josh Teschner knows his ace will always come back strong.
"Molly will probably tell you she didn't have her best stuff today but the one thing we know is that she is going to compete every single at-bat and every single pitch," Teschner said. "Following a bad pitch, she is going to come back with a good one. We have a lot of faith in her to keep us in games and today she did that."
Nay was Prospect's only batter with multiple hits (2-for-3) and senior catcher Gianna Catanzano also had a hit.
"I told our girls the last time we had zero hits against her (Kanupke) so as much as I would have liked to get the win this time, it shows we had better approaches," Mackowiak said. "We were hitting the ball (6 hits) and we're improving. We battled right to the end. Those are the things we want to see as we head to the end of the conference season."
Fremd is also hoping for a strong finish in conference.
"By sitting in a tie for second at this point (behind Barrington) in conference and with the new format, at the very least gives ourselves a chance (for the conference semifinals) and that's really the whole goal all season long," Teschner said. "We talked to the girls about it after playing Buffalo Grove (5-4 win) and said just fight and fight and give ourselves a chance.
"What's great is they're a group that bounces back after bad innings, after bad at-bats and they fight for each other. We are giving ourselves a chance."
Conant is also giving itself a chance to make the final four.
With its 13-3 win over Buffalo Grove on Thursday, the Cougars (18 hits in the game) remained tied for second in the West with Fremd who they'll play next Thursday in Palatine.
Freshman Brooke Arndt has been leading Conant in April with a .538 average while Grace Reed, Payton Ackman, and Addy Michelini are hitting above .400.
"Our two pitchers have been working extremely well together," said Conant coach Allie Jay. "Payton Ackman and Adler Long have a combined ERA of 2.90 with opposing batters hitting .210 against Long and .238 against Ackman.
"We are doing well and learning to play and compete together and know how to fill the roles when needed. Also in April, we had a mental health expert and founder of Me2We (Zach Gale) come speak to our team which was an awesome experience. And we had a great turnout at our annual hit-a-thon/fundraiser that we have for the program, which is also a tribute to Sammie Gadomski (late Conant softball star who graduated in 2017)."