Voigt drives Fremd past Prospect
In less than four months, Kelly Voigt will be swinging a golf club for Valparaiso University.
But on Saturday morning, she may have never swung a softball bat better.
The senior Fremd third baseman, who hits in the No. 6 spot, went 4-for-4 with 2 home runs, a double and a single.
Her 6 RBI sparked the offense in Fremd's 11-0, six-inning shutout over No. 9 Prospect in the Vikings' own Class 4A regional championship.
Top-seeded Fremd (29-4) advances to the Buffalo Grove sectional and will face No. 4 Warren (28-7) in Wednesday's semifinal at 4:30 p.m.
"That's a pretty good day, no doubt about it," said Fremd coach Jim Weaver about Voigt's first career 2-homer game. "She's has been coming on with the bat."
After Lauren Zaworski (2-for-4) doubled home Kristine Werling (2-for-4) for a 1-0 lead in the first, Voigt's solo homer in the second inning gave the Vikings a 2-0 lead.
Voigt's 3-run blast in the sixth over the right-center field fence brought home Zaworski and Jenny Schneider with one out and ended the game by the 10-run rule.
"When you're in a zone, you're in a zone," Voigt said about her big day. "I was just seeing the ball well and hitting it."
Fremd ace Lena Brottman (26-2) fired a 4-hitter to notch her school-record 79th win. She struck out the side three times and finished with 11 strikeouts, giving her 971 for her career, also a school record.
"If you talk to Lena, I think she won't be happy," Weaver added. "She can throw better. But that's what winners do. They figure out how to win even when they are not executing the way they want.
"And Prospect has a nice lineup. So to throw a shutout is a nice accomplishment."
The Prospect lineup got 2 hits apiece from Nikki Surico (2-for-2) and Nicole Naranjo (2-for-3).
"They did a good job," said Prospect coach Brenda Martin of the two juniors.
Fremd shortstop Allie Gaeding made a great backhand stab and throw to first to take a hit away from Amanda Mlikan in the fifth. She also made a nice catch of Allison Malewig's short popup behind the pitcher's mound in the sixth inning.
"Before the game, we talked about pretending that we did not know Fremd's record and how good of a team they were," said Malewig, the Knights' graduating first baseman who will study at the University of Illinois.
"No one expected us to come here and win, or even to play close to them like we did in the first four innings (down only 2-0 going into the fifth inning). So we just wanted to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and I thought we did pretty well."
Martin was pleased her team gave its all.
"They played their hearts out," she said. "Allison (Malewig) really turned it around for us at the end of the season in term of leadership and overall play. That's what brought this whole group up."
Sophomore Hanna Lythberg (6-9) went the first 2 innings for Prospect (14-19) while Sam Mangrum (8-10) pitched the final four.
"The future looks bright," Martin added. "Sam and Hanna are returning. We have a solid infield and outfield. We'll see what happens.
"We did everything we could to prepare for Fremd. We played a great first 4 innings. We had people on base (stranded five). We just couldn't get them around. We wish Fremd the best of luck."
Werling started the Vikings' 5-run fifth with a single to center. Voigt and Megan Hubbard later drilled back-to-back 2-run doubles with one out and Alexa Cinquegrani drew a bases-loaded walk.
The inning ended when Prospect freshman shortstop Michele Molini made a terrific over-the-back scoop catch on Werling near the third base foul line.
In the sixth, Cinquegrani had a sacrifice fly to right that brought home Gaeding before Voigt belted the walk-off homer.
"We've been working hard for this all season," Voigt said. "Everyone definitely stepped up."
Especially that third baseman who will be hitting golf balls in the fall.