Palatine's Boisvert gets job done with arm and glove against Wauconda

Her softball glove hangs low enough by virtue of her standing just 5 feet tall, and then Palatine pitcher Dani Boisvert goes real low.

She dips so much during her windup that her glove comes inches from dusting up infield dirt.

Call it just coincidence that, just before she fires to the plate, the little lefty looks in perfect fielding position.

She certainly was ready to field her position Monday in Palatine's 7-2 win over host Wauconda, as she routinely induced batters to hit weakly struck groundballs back to the circle or close to it.

"When she's doing that, you know she's getting the ball down and keeping them off-balance," coach Jeff Manz said after his Pirates won their third straight to even their record at 3-3.

Boisvert made third baseman Heather Zimmerman plenty busy, as Zimmerman made 2 putouts and had 4 assists. Boisvert, who boasts a 3-1 record as her team's No. 2 pitcher, threw out 6 batters at first base, often spinning like a "tornado," as described by Manz.

"Fielding my position has always been trouble for me with my glove position, " Boisvert said. "But I just worked really hard on it over the winter."

Her teammates staked her to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Wauconda pitcher Brittany Ehmann, taking advantage of 3 walks, a throwing error and wild pitch.

Alyx Ballenger's RBI double in the top of the second made it 4-0.

Wauconda (2-3), which lost its third game in a row, didn't get a hit until the fourth, when Rachel Hughes ripped an RBI double into the gap. One out later, freshman Megan Luchowski singled home Hughes.

But the Bulldogs didn't get another hit the rest of the game.

"She was slower than I think what we're used to," Hughes said of Boisvert. "She had a lot of (effective) outside pitches, but we just weren't making good contact."

Boisvert finished with 3 strikeouts and didn't walk a batter. She retired the last 10 batters she faced, and only 1 of the runs she allowed was earned.

"My main pitch I was throwing was my drop," Boisvert said. "Which I still need to improve. But it was working really well for me today."

Wauconda coach Tim Rennels wasn't happy with his team's mental approach, especially early on in the game.

"It's early (in the season) and we'll get them all right on track," Rennels said. "But we swung like we hadn't picked up a bat all year. (Boisvert) had her little screwball busting outside, but these girls are too good of hitters to not be able to put rallies together. Just bad swings."

When they weren't drawing one of their 8 walks, the Pirates were putting a lot of good swings on the ball. Besides Ballenger (2-for-2, 2 walks, 2 runs), they also got offensive contributions from Sam Salomone (single, 2 walks, 3 runs), Meaghan Deegan (sacrifice fly), Joanne Jablonski (2 RBI), freshman Lauren Logan (RBI, 2 walks), Katie Scovic (slap double), Zimmerman (single, walk) and Kelli Burke (sacrifice bunt).

"I thought they were disciplined at the plate with taking pitches (in the first inning)," Manz said. "I thought we did a good job when we did get runners on of bunting them over. And two (other balls put in play) were right-side (groundouts) with a runner on third and less than two outs. Which we stress a lot."