Senior leadership helps carry Golden Eagles to new heights

Anytime you start a season with seven experienced seniors on your team, you have to have a good feeling.

But good feelings don't win games on the field, nor does experience alone. It takes the sum of all the parts to be successful.

Just ask the Jacobs softball team, which despite all the weather problems every team has faced this spring, had fashioned a 15-2 record going into Thursday's Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup with McHenry.

"I thought we'd be OK but I didn't know we'd be as good as we are," said fifth-year Golden Eagles coach Jeremy Bauer. "We've only given up (22) runs and we've scored (119). Put those two things together and you'll be successful."

The Golden Eagles have been winning because they play the game well in all facets -- pitching, defense and hitting. Their team batting average is in the .370 range, the team ERA is under 1 and the defense has been strong behind the pitching of senior Becky Wilson and freshman Kara Arceneaux, who rely much more on their teammates' gloves and arms than they do on the strikeout.

"We've been playing great defense," said senior co-captain and shortstop Lauren Arceneaux, the second leading hitter in the area at .541 who is bound for Loyola on scholarship to play for coach Yvette Healy's Ramblers the next four years.

"It doesn't matter who's pitching or who we're facing. Communication was one of our major goals this year and I think we're doing an amazing job. We're definitely building on what we thought would be a successful year."

In addition to the seven returning seniors, Jacobs carries two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen on its roster. And those two freshmen -- Kara Arceneaux (Lauren's sister) and Jenna Tesson -- have been key contributors to the team's success. Kara Arceneaux has gone 4-0 in the pitchers circle, taking some of the load off of Wilson as the Eagles have gone unbeaten in Valley play so far.

"I've been around the team for so long and right from the start they were all open and took us in," Kara Arceneaux said. "When I was watching them play I always pictured myself on the team and when I made it I was so excited. I knew I had to prove myself. My team has really supported me and I know they've got my back."

"I like pitching because I can control the game, but I know I can rely on my defense and all I have to do is throw the ball in there. I don't strike a lot of people out but I do get a lot of groundballs and my defense is why I've been so successful."

Pitching was the one thing Bauer wondered about coming into the season but Kara Arceneaux's performance has tempered that concern.

"She's played with a lot of the girls in travel ball and she's used to playing the tough competition," he said.

But it still comes down to senior leadership, and Bauer has two of the area's best as his captains in Lauren Arceneaux and third baseman/outfielder Lizzie Andrews. Add in the experience of seniors Wilson, Katie Collins, Julie Escareno, Meghan Hough and Stephanie Schmidt and it's easy to see how well-rounded the Golden Eagles are. Juniors Cassy Bencal and Sam Vojtsek, along with sophomore Sara Jacobson, have also been key contributors.

"Lauren is serious and really focused and driven. Lizzie is the one who loosens us up more. They compliment each other well and they lead our team well," Bauer said of his captains. "A lot of these seniors have played together for a while and they know each other's strengths and weaknesses. And the effort is there too. I've never seen people lay out for balls like this team does."

Andrews says another reason the Golden Eagles have been winning so much this season -- their only losses were to Barrington 2-0 in the season opener and an unexpected 4-2 setback to Johnsburg -- has been team chemistry.

"All of these girls are really great, we all get along and we have so much experience," said Andrews, like Lauren Arceneaux a returning all-area player who is hitting over .400 this season. "Our intensity is way up for all seven innings this year. We all work on our defense so much and we're really good at picking each other up. We know what we have to do."

Lauren Arceneaux likes how everyone on the team has had a seat on the success train this spring.

"Everyone on our team contributes and everyone works so hard at practice," said Arceneaux, who plays her summer travel ball with the Midland Magic exposure team.

Since Bauer took over the program he's tried to toughen up the schedule by adding as many teams from the ultra-tough Mid-Suburban League as possible. While games against Hoffman Estates, Fremd and Schaumburg were rained out this year the Golden Eagles did get to play defending state runner-up Barrington as well as Palatine. They also knocked off a Top 20 team in Lake Zurich last week. Three rounds of Valley play in addition to one round of FVC crossovers limits FVC teams somewhat in terms of available nonconference dates.

"Coach Bauer does a good job of getting us into the MSL teams," Lauren Arceneaux said. "We just want to play the best teams in the area when we can. I'm just excited that we're winning."

And that's something Andrews believes the Golden Eagles can do more of in the coming weeks. They are already on track to win the Valley title again (they shared it with Crystal Lake South last year), and then comes a regional that's at Jacobs and, in reality, a mini-FVC tournament with Dundee-Crown, Prairie Ridge, CL South and Cary-Grove also in the field.

"I believe strongly we can win the regional and that's one of our biggest goals," said Andrews, who was a freshman the last time Jacobs won a regional in 2005. "I got moved up just to watch when we won a regional last time and it was a great experience. It's at our school this year and we'd love to go all out and win it and see how far we can prove ourselves."

So far, that proof has been pretty positive.