W. Aurora handles Rosary
Kelsey Renner ignited the West Aurora softball attack, and Maribeth Vasquez snuffed out the Rosary fuse for a comeback.
The former blasted a 2-run third-inning home run to break a 1-1 tie, and the latter gunned down would-be Rosary base-stealers in consecutive innings to lead the Blackhawks past the Royals 9-3 in the neighborhood rivalry game at West on Friday afternoon.
"It's always fun to play Rosary," said West Aurora coach Dave Zine, whose squad extended its season-opening winning streak to seven games. "All the girls know each other."
Rosary fell to 1-2.
After an exchange of gift runs in the bottom of the first and top of the second, respectively, Renner strode to the plate with two outs and Mariah Barnak on second base in the Blackhawks' third.
The senior DH sent a wind-aided towering drive that barely nestled over the center-field fence that sparked a West Aurora 7-run outburst.
"I was just hoping (Barnak) would score on anything that I hit," Renner said. "I really just go up there and swing. I was (also) hoping (the Rosary center-fielder) wasn't going to rob me."
"That was not a home-run swing," Zine added. "(Renner) has been huge for us."
Vasquez then came to the defensive forefront for West Aurora in the next two Rosary at-bats.
The sophomore backstop recorded the first out in the fourth and fifth innings on Rosary steal attempts -- adding to a second-inning assist -- and stopped a bunt attempt with another deft snare.
"I just prepared for anything," Vasquez said.
"It was huge," Zine said of Vasquez. "They tried to take the game to us. There's no telling what would have happened without Maribeth throwing those runners out. That was probably the key to the game."
West Aurora and its winning pitcher Sam Arenkill then put the game away in its half of the fifth.
Arenkill, who went the distance to earn her second win of the season, drove home Devin Vaughn with an opposite-field single, and junior Steph Becker followed suit shortly thereafter.
The first baseman drove in another pair with a seeing-eye single the other way, and back-to-back infield groundouts from Madison Whitt and Jessica Medgysei secured the last of the Blackhawks' 5 runs in the inning.
With a commanding 8-1 lead, Arenkill relied on her defense the rest of the way.
Arenkill retired the final 6 Rosary batters following a 2-run double by the Royals' Colleen VanBogaert in the sixth.
"I was really happy with our team," Rosary coach Tara Tattersall said. "It was only our third game; we've hardly been outside at all. (West Aurora is) a good hitting team. They were hitting the ball hard."