Conant comes through again

Now this is what you call quite a 24-hour stretch.

Over the last two days, Conant’s softball team defeated the only two teams to win the Mid-Suburban West for the last 12 seasons.

After a dramatic 7-6 win at Barrington on Wednesday, the Cougars hit the road to play at another softball powerhouse’s field on Thursday.

The news was just as good in Palatine as Conant defeated defending West champion Fremd 4-1 behind junior Briana Cavin’s 6-hitter and 9 strikeouts.

Since winning the first MSL championship in1974, the two road wins are quite possibly two of the biggest Conant (12-1, 3-1) has had in the league play.

“We’ve got to tip our cap to Bri (Cavin),” said Fremd coach Jim Weaver, whose team (12-1-1, 2-1) lost for the first time in 14 games. “We’ve got to get better against the better pitchers.”

Cavin (10-1) gave herself a 1-0 lead just four pitches into the game when she led off with an opposite-field liner that cleared the left-center field fence for her first home run of the season.

“I thought was going to hit the fence,” she said. “I didn’t think it was going over.”

Fremd made sure the game wasn’t over as it fought back to within 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth.

That’s when catcher Kristine Herdegen’s two-out double to left center brought home Michelle Mazur, who blooped a double into right field after two were out.

But Cavin got 2 insurance runs in the top of sixth when freshman second baseman Rachel O’Malley belted her first homer over the left-center field fence with Paige Ward (double to center) on base.

O’Malley’s blast was the Cougars’ 12th homer of the season.

Conant coach CathyAnn Smith believes that is more than the Cougars have hit in any of her previous 10 seasons.

“Rachel has been due for something like that,” Smith said. “Shes that type of a hitter. I’m really proud of her.”

Smith was proud of her entire team, which suffered its only loss to Elk Grove (11-1), the top-ranked team in the Daily Herald poll.

“These girls have a lot of passion,” Smith said. “It’s been a long 24 hours, but exciting. The girls knew they had another job to do after the game on Wednesday.

“We went up against two of the top teams (Barrington and Fremd have 13 combined trips to the state finals) in the conference. Fremd does not make mistake. They are a good defensive team.”

The Cougars also played some good defense as they did not commit an error behind Cavin.

“These wins just give us confidence that we are capable of winning the conference,” Cavin said. “These are the two best wins of the my three years here.”

Senior Hilary O’Donnell went 3-for-3 with a walk to spark the Cougars offense, which also received hits from Sarah Thompson, Miranda Cavin, Allie Bauch (triple) and Sarah Pawlik.

“Hilary has stepped up and taken on a big senior role,” Smith said.

Right fielder Mazur was the only multiple hitter for the Vikings. The sophomore right fielder went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles.

Center fielder Mandi Matsumoto, Allie Gaeding, Brittany Ciura and Megan Horn also had hits for the Vikes.

Matsumoto threw out a runner trying to score from second on O’Donnell’s single in the second inning. Herdegen made the tag.

Herdegen also had a putout at the plate when first baseman Megan Horn fielded a bunt and tossed home to catch a runner trying to score from third base in the fourth inning.

“Defensively, I was really happy,” said Weaver, whose team was second in the Class 4A state tourney last June. “We kept wiggling and wiggling out of things.

“Ashlynne (Schwantz, now 6-1) didn’t have her best stuff. She knew it but she kept battling. All we worry about is getting better by the end of May.”