Elk Grove can’t slow down red-hot Richards

Elk Grove knew it would have a tall task Saturday facing undefeated Oak Lawn Richards and 5-foot-11 ace pitcher Brianna LeBeau, who had already won 9 games on the season.

And although the Grens were able to touch LeBeau for 9 base hits and plate 3 runs, the hosts couldn’t keep up with the hot bats of the visiting Bulldogs.

Richards banged out 12 hits, 3 for extra bases, to defeat Elk Grove 8-3 and improve to 14-0.

“We felt strong today,” said Grens senior catcher Devan Parkison, who said they “amped up” the speed on the pitching machine at batting practice early Saturday to get ready for the hard throwing LeBeau. “But we made a few communications errors in the field, and that’s something we’ve got to overcome.”

“What we’ve got to take from today’s game is that we need a better effort against the top teams,” added sophomore second baseman Becca Maher, who had 2 RBI for the Grens. “The next time we face a tough team like this, we’ll be ready.”

Richards opened the scoring by plating a run in the top of the fifth in a game that was expected to be a low scoring affair matching two of the state’s top pitchers, LeBeau and Elk Grove senior Dani Goranson.

But any thoughts of a pitchers duel vanished when the Bulldogs scored three more times in the sixth.

“We’ve be working so hard in practice,” said LeBeau. “I wasn’t surprised that we hit the ball as well as we did.”

“I was trying to work the hitters and they kept popping the ball up,” added the senior, who got 13 of her 21 outs on flyballs or infield pop outs. “I actually wasn’t feel that great today, but I knew I could trust my defense.”

Elk Grove (7-2) rallied in the bottom of the sixth as Maher’s long single drove home Krista Soesbe and pinch runner Allie Peters. But Richards ended the suspense by scoring four more times in the top of the seventh.

Senior Megan Keegan added an RBI single for the Grenadiers in the final frame.

Parkison had 2 hits for the Grens and was on base 3 times, while senior Carly Danek added 2 singles and senior Becca Walz had a double.

“We were out of position a couple of times in the field and made some communications mistakes that opened the door for them — and we coudn’t shut it,” said Elk Grove coach Ken Grams. “We had talked about controlling the parts of the game that we could control, but we know that some parts are just uncontrollable.”

“But that’s why you play teams like this,” added Grams of Richards. “You treat it as a learning experience and take what can from it.”