Warren's rally falls short

Host Barrington escaped, but barely Wednesday afternoon when Warren's seventh-inning rally fell just short.

The Blue Devils' Lexi Leneau was thrown out on a close play at home for the final out, after Lindsay Horwitz singled into the outfield, and the Fillies picked up a 3-2 victory in the Spring Fling girls softball tournament.

"I was clearly safe," Leneau said. "I had my arm down and (the catcher) tagged me on my back. There's no way I didn't get there before she tagged me."

Warren (1-1) had scored a run in the top of the seventh to pull within one. Leneau helped spark the rally with a single and stolen base.

Barrington had taken the lead in the third on a 2-run homer by Kiersten Tinkoff. Warren cut its deficit in half in the fourth when Paige Dombrowski doubled and scored on Kaiti McKeon's single.

Beth Owen's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth put Barrington up by 2 runs again.

The Spring Fling concludes today with Warren facing Lake Zurich at 4:30 p.m. in the third-place game. Barrington faces Zion-Benton at the same time for the championship.

Richmond-Burton 4, Grayslake Central 1: The host Rockets scored 3 runs in the first inning and went on to defeat the Rams in their nonconference season opener.

Cary-Grove 3, Antioch 2: Freshman Lindsey Efflandt pitched the host Trojans to the nonconference victory, outdueling Northwestern-commit Olivia Duehr.

Antioch's 6 hits included a pair by Cat Dinklenburg and a triple by Jessie Liszka. Duehr struck out 10, walked three and surrendered 6 hits.