Buffalo Grove outslugs Hoffman Estates
The big bats came out on the Hoffman Estates softball diamond Wednesday.
First from visiting Buffalo Grove, then the Hawks.
Buffalo Grove clubbed 14 hits in the first four innings leading to a 13-1 advantage.
Hoffman ripped 16 hits in the last four innings.
When it was over, Hoffman had one more hit (18-17) but the Bison had 3 more runs.
Buffalo Grove wound up prevailing 13-10 to improve to 6-3 and 1-1 in the Mid-Suburban East.
“We’ve got to learn how to finish games,” said Bison center fielder Andrea DiPrima (4-for-5, home run, double, 2 RBI) who certainly helped the Bison start this one with a third-inning opposite-field homer over the left-field fence. “Everyone did a great job of hitting and contributing that way, but we can’t let up on defense.”
DiPrima’s blast triggered a 10-run inning in which 16 Bison batted.
Senior shortstop KC Dunne (2-for-5, 2 RBI) followed DiPrima’s homer with another one just about 20 feet from the same spot. The Bison also received doubles from Emily Begnel and Dani Shapiro in the inning.
DiPrima and Dunne batted twice in the inning and had RBI singles in their next at-bats. Sarah Penelle added an RBI single and Shapiro a sacrifice fly to drive in Begnel.
The Bison were one out away from winning by the 10-run rule in the fifth inning when senior Taylor Mann (2-for-4) singled to center to drive home Nicole LaBeck (2-for-5) and Alex Tuminaro (3-for-5).
With their renewed hopes, the Hawks (3-8, 1-1) kept battling and scored 4 times in the sixth (RBI double by Kelsey Pellus and RBIs singles by Emily Fett and Mann) and one more in the seventh when they loaded the bases with no outs.
Hoffman had the tying run on base with one out when Tuminaro’s hard liner was caught by third baseman Erin Barton, who stepped on third to double up a baserunner and end the slugfest.
“We just knew we had to relax,” Dunne said. “Even though they had the bases loaded, we just need to get three outs and it didn’t matter if they scored.”
Pellus went 3-for-4 for Hoffman with 2 walks while Sam Acosta, Linden Fick and Emily Fett also had 2 hits for the hosts.
“I had no doubt we could come back,” Mann said. “All we had to was find one little thing to bring us back and we did. We just picked up our spirits and came together.”
“I’m proud of the girls,” said Hoffman coach Lindsey Hamma. “We have to work defensively on the little things and I think the girls are ready to do that. But they found out they can fight back into any game.”
Catcher Amanda Salzman (3-for-5), left fielder Danielle Brown (2-for-4) and second baseman Penelle (2-for-3) were other key hitters for BG.
“Thirteen runs should be enough to win any game,” said Bison coach Jamie Paul. “I told the kids Hoffman is a great hitting team. I told them they couldn’t let up and had to play defense all the way to the end.
“It’s a positive that we got some confidence with our bats and saw we can score runs but we also found things we must work on. We must stay air-tight with our defense. We can’t let teams back into game once we establish the lead.”