Softball: Conant’s newcomers making immediate impact
With five freshmen and only two seniors, this year's edition of Conant softball presents one of its younger teams in recent seasons.
But that hasn't stopped the Cougars from getting off to an impressive start, with its overall record of 5-1 and its unbeaten mark in the Mid-Suburban West.
Coach Allie Jay's squad went to 2-0 in the West on Thursday with a 10-0 win over visiting Buffalo Grove, getting a 3-hitter from freshman Adler Long, now 3-0 for the season.
The right-hander was coming off a 12-6 complete game win over Hersey one day earlier.
"She's a tough kid," Jay said of Long, whose ERA is below 2.50 in four appearances (three starts) this season. "And she's doing what she needs to do for the team."
"She's been doing very well," said second baseman Kiana Leopoldo, the only starting senior on Thursday. "And we have a strong defense behind her."
The Cougars also had a strong offense Thursday, led by junior centerfielder Cailyn Kehoe, who went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and 2 RBI.
Kehoe's first double, a one-out liner to left field, drove home Leopoldo (double to left-center) for what would be the only run Long would need. Kehoe made it 2-0 in the host's 6-run third inning when she doubled sharply to right center, this time scoring leadoff batter Sophia Gomez, who had walked and scored from first base.
"We just all came together with the bats," Kehoe said. "We played very well with defense and communication being the biggest keys."
Defensively, shortstop Gomez made a great catch in shallow center over her right shoulder while falling to the ground to rob Leah Hampton in the first inning.
Cougars sophomore first baseman Payton Ackman, also a pitcher, made a superb diving grab of Natalie Whitson's smash, and then dove back to first base to touch the bag for the first out of the fifth inning.
Long then got a groundout to Leopoldo and her sixth strikeout to end the game.
Ackman also had a nice scoop to retire a batter trying to beat out an infield grounder in the third inning.
"Our team is very young but we bond well together," Leopoldo added. "We constantly work hard at practice and we are very welcoming on our team, especially with five freshmen this season."
In all, the Cougars had 10 hits, including three in the bottom of the fourth when they scored 3 runs for the 10-0 lead.
One of those hits came off the bat of Grace Reed, who went 2-for-3 including a sharp lineout to center.
Abby Kovaka, Long and Ackman also had hits for Conant.
'"We barreled up some very good balls and we had some timely hitting," Jay added. "Honestly, this was an entire team win and we had some awesome defense, too. I'm proud of everyone. I'm excited about this group and they're just good kids. They work hard and do things the right way. They're fun to coach."
BG also had some nifty defense, including first baseman Brooklyn Edler's over-the-shoulder running grab of a pop foul near the first base fence and third baseman Hampton's grab of a pop while running toward the third base fence. Shortstop Lilly Kim made some nice diving plays to her left to keep hard-hits balls in the infield.
Annie Sadowski (2-for-2), who started for BG's MSL West champion girls basketball team, led the Bison offense with two hard-hit doubles to the left and right field gaps while Kim had the visitors' other hit with a two-out infield single in the third inning.
"You have to give Conant credit," said BG coach Martha Kelly whose team is 1-4 and 0-1. "They hit the ball hard and put the ball in play but we made a lot of errors and mistakes so we have to take ownership of that.
"I believe (Madeline Haber) did a great job on the mound. She got the ground balls that we wanted and she got the pop-ups we wanted. We just have to make the fundamental plays.
"But there were positives for us. I thought we had some good solid contact with the bats, something we had been struggling with in our last couple of games. So we're improving. We're getting there."