Munaco, Lake Park top South Elgin

Lake Park catcher Alexis Munaco has been spending a lot of early mornings hitting in the gym.

South Elgin wishes she had slept in instead of putting in those 6 a.m. batting sessions. Munaco, who is hitting .340 for the season, went 4-for-5 including 2 doubles and a home run as Lake Park's softball team won 17-6 in 6 innings Thrusday in Upstate Eight Conference play at South Elgin.

"She wasn't mashing the ball," Lake Park coach Tom Mazzie said. "(Now) when she hits the ball it's scary how hard it comes off of the bat. She's a stud. She's the definition of hard work."

Munaco, who also scored 3 times and added 4 RBI, led a Lake Park attack that included 18 total hits and 43 at-bats. The Lancers (8-5, 3-2) batted around the order in both the second and fourth innings. In the second, Lake Park jumped out to a 5-3 lead and in the fourth it extended its lead to 11-3.

Shortstop Sarah Koch went 3-for-5 and scored 3 times with a pair of doubles. In the fourth, she jump-started a string of RBI singles which led to RBI hits from Alyssa Robinson and Chelsea Gieseke. Carly Willert, who had reached base on an error and scored earlier in the fourth, came through with a 2-run single to score Gieseke and Alexa Nelms.

"We really came together as a team," said Munaco, who nailed her second home run of the year in the fifth. "We're realizing that we have to swing the bats to win. We can't just rely on defense to wins games."

Munaco finished her day off with her second RBI double during Lake Park's 4-run sixth inning. South Elgin (7-7, 3-2) allowed all 4 runs after there were two outs.

"We have to stay focused," Storm coach Jason Schaal said. "We came out and started well. We had to make sure we have the at-bats."

South Elgin opened the first inning scoring 3 runs off of 2 hits. Both Courtney Bosteder and Layla Ismajlaj nailed RBI doubles in the inning. Then the offense and focus drifted until Ismajlaj got up to the plate for the second time, in the fourth inning when she doubled and scored.

The Storm got a couple of runs when Kim Pierce nailed her first home run of the season in the fifth. South Elgin finished with just 29 plate appearances with Lake Park amassing 43.

Kelly Loy improved to 3-0 on the season, while Cary Thereon (4-3) took the loss for South Elgin.