Zion-Benton edges Lake Zurich, gets shot at Barrington
His leadoff hitter and center fielder, Shannon Lauret, is fielding college offers. His left fielder and No.-2 hitter, Ryleigh Sears, will slap-hit for Western Illinois.
His third-place hitter and shortstop, Abby Hanson, will show off her arm and power for Bowling Green State. And his cleanup batter, Veronica Kraly, will play for the College of Lake County.
Now all Zion-Benton softball coach Rick Rymer has to do is convince his talented roster and maybe the rest of the area that his team can be elite again this season.
So far, so good, after the Zee-Bees rallied late to edge Lake Zurich 6-5 on Wednesday and improve to 2-0 in Barrington's Spring Fling at the Fields of Dreams.
"This is our opportunity to show a good senior class that I have that you can beat teams at Barrington," said Rymer, whose Zee-Bees won a regional title last year and are seeking their fifth-straight season of 23 or more wins. "We want to get to the point where people respect us as much as they do Fremd, the Lockports and all those schools."
Zion-Benton gets its chance to knock off mighty Barrington today in the tournament championship game at 4:30 p.m.
Lake Zurich (1-1) plays Warren (1-1) in the third-place game at the same time.
The Bears surrendered a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to allow the Zee-Bees to wipe out a 5-3 deficit. In the seventh, Hanson's one-out single to deep center field scored Lauret from second base for the game-winner.
Lake Zurich ace Megan Mattera suffered the hard-luck loss. The junior struck out nine, walked one and yielded 6 hits. One of the hits was a 2-run homer by Kraly. Jamie Breitweiser and Jessica Munda doubled off Mattera.
"It was a tough game," Mattera said. "It was a close game. Mentally, I was just trying to push through it, trying to get the win. I wanted the win badly. But what are you going to do?"
Lake Zurich did all of its scoring in the first three innings, scoring 4 runs off Z-B starter Janika May in the first two innings and getting another off Munda in the third.
Mattera (2-for-4) got the Bears going offensively with a two-out, 2-run single in the first. Kelli Blume (2-for-4) smacked an RBI double off the right-field fence in the third. Erin Sweeney led Lake Zurich's 10-hit attack by going 3-for-4.
"We just made too many physical errors that resulted in mental errors," said Lake Zurich first-year coach Michaela Towne, whose team played without shortstop Amanda Orchard (national volleyball tournament), center fielder Kelly Neisis (sick) and left fielder Kaitlin Beaver (torn hamstring).
"After the third inning, we couldn't really string anything together. We let our momentum slide and you can't do that against a team like Zion that's going to hit the ball."
Lauret, who had been hitless in three trips, led off the last of the seventh by ripping a double into the left-field corner.
"Actually, she's so fast that I thought about having her lay down a bunt," Rymer said. "But then I thought, she's '0-for' right now and she usually doesn't go '0-for' in any ballgame."
After Mattera struck out Sears, Hanson delivered, giving the Zee-Bees the walk-off win.
"Last year she didn't hit real well off Mattera," Rymer said. "I think this is going to take that monkey off her back as far as her confidence."
"She had my number today," Mattera said. "Hats off to her. It's their time now, but I'm looking forward to playing them in conference."