St. Charles E. rallies by Geneva
On a team with power bats like RaeAnne Payleitner and Casey Basic and a near .400 hitter in leadoff Lexi Perez, St. Charles East coach Kelly Horan said there’s nobody she’d rather see in a pressure situation than junior Allie Hall.
Horan’s faith in Hall paid off in a big way in the seventh inning Tuesday when Hall lined the first pitch she saw from Geneva’s Kelly McCaffrey into left field to score Lindsay Vellega with the winning run in a 4-3 St. Charles East victory.
“Allie is in that (No. 5) spot because she’s a contact hitter,” Horan said. “You know she’s going to put it in play and make them work. It’s really exciting for her and I know she’s worked so hard.”
In winning its fifth straight game, St. Charles East (14-12, 8-6) snapped a 7-game winning streak for Geneva (19-7, 11-4).
The Saints did it by answering Geneva each time the Vikings scored. Kelly Gordon ripped an RBI double in the second for the Vikings; freshman Sarah Collalti singled in Dani Asquini to tie it at 1-1.
Geneva went ahead 3-1 in the fifth. Elena Wright’s infield singled scored Clare Stribling, and Bridget Weitzel stole home when Wright drew a throw taking off for second base.
The Saints got a run right back in the fifth. Perez and Vellega singled, and Perez scored when Geneva second baseman Melissa Barber turned a 4-3 double play on Payleitner’s smash.
St. Charles East stayed within 3-2 by turning a 6-3 double play in the top of the seventh.
“That double play hurt us,” Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. “They hit the ball really well. They definitely deserved to win, they outplayed us. I don’t think we played poorly. They played very well.”
Collalti, the Saints’ freshman center fielder, opened the seventh with a single. Perez bunted her to second, and Vellega singled her to third.
Payleitner crushed a line drive that Wright reached high for and nearly snagged at shortstop which could easily have become a game-ending 6-5 double play. Instead, Wright couldn’t quite hang on and Collalti scored to tie the game 3-3.
“That was close,” Dierks said. “I was trying to think how we could get a double play and get out of there. They had some good rips the last inning.”
“I was hoping it through and it got through,” said Payleitner, whose team avenged a 1-0 loss in 10 innings to Geneva in the first meeting.
“We came in hungry for that win. They are on our field and we are going to take it to them this time. We’ve had good offensive games the last few weeks. The one thing we have struggled with is to put in that last run. That (seventh-inning rally) shows how we are going to come into the playoffs and home stretch of the season knowing our team is capable of that and has that confidence.”
After McCaffrey retired Basic on a comebacker, Hall lined a clean single to left to win the game.
“Every at-bat I go up with confidence and this time I found a hole. Every at-bat is pretty exciting but that is a lot of pressure but it’s pretty fun. Same approach as always,” Hall said.
“Our energy level has been amazing the last few games. It really helped us being down in the seventh inning pick each other up. We’ve really come together as a team and fixed what we have to fix and everything is jelling together.”
The rally made a winner of St. Charles East starter Shannon Pedersen, now 7-4 overall and 6-1 in conference. She scattered 9 hits and walked just one, striking out two.
Geneva’s Wright led all hitters going 3-for-4. Gordon and Weitzel both added 2 hits.
Vellega, Payleitner and Collalti all had 2 hits for the Saints.
“We’ve got girls here who are all about winning,” Horan said. “The kids never died today. When you have a team full of competitors I think they are getting a little bit of belief and a little bit of a fire and I can’t be more excited. When their backs are against the wall they came out and performed and as a coach you can’t ask for more than that.”