Freshmen providing Geneva a lift

Freshman Kirsten Searcy is off to a great start at Geneva.

Starting this week, Searcy led the Vikings in RBI with 13 and was tied for second on the team in runs with 13.

"From the first day on she has come in as a freshman and played great in the field and been very consistent with the bat," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said.

Searcy has been playing third base and hitting in the cleanup spot. She said she only knew two of her teammates before the season but has received a lot of support from the older players on the team.

"The girls are really encouraging so that makes me do better," Searcy said. "The girls are really nice. They just accepted everyone."

Another freshman is coming on strong for the Vikings, center fielder Bridget Weitzel. She socked a key triple to help Geneva defeat Batavia 4-2, then came up with a clutch RBI single in a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over St. Charles East.

While defending champ Glenbard South is rolling along once again at 16-1 overall, 6-0 in the Western Sun, Geneva is right on the Raiders' tails with only 1 conference loss.

Start it up: Every team needs a spark at the top of its lineup.

Junior second baseman Alyssa Reimers provided just that for West Aurora Friday against Wheaton North.

Reimers doubled in her first at-bat, singled in her next two at-bats, then walked in her fourth at-bat to reach base all four times.

Blackhawks coach Dave Zine has seen that all year from his second baseman, who improved her average to .317.

"She's been really consistent," Zine said. "She plays small ball, she gets us going."

Zine also praised the fundamentals of sophomore LaRi Mitchell hitting behind Reimers. Both times after Reimers singled Mitchell put down a successful sacrifice bunt.

Cool under pressure: St. Charles North junior Amanda Ciran found herself pitching with the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings of a tight 2-0 game against Glenbard North on Thursday.

Both times Ciran stranded the runners on base, which came as no surprise to teammate Taylor Russell.

"We know our pitchers are going to work their way out of it if they get in a bad situation," said Russell, who besides playing stellar third base this year is leading the area with a whopping .659 batting average.

What mindset does it take to pitch out of those jams?

"Just stop them at third base. Whatever you can do. Just keep it at third base. That was pretty much all that goes through my mind," Ciran said.

On fire: St. Charles North won all five of its games last week to improve to 17-2. The North Stars bounced back from their only Upstate Eight loss, 10-9 to Neuqua Valley the previous Thursday in a game coach April Stary said they didn't deserve to win.

"We had a couple air-head, what are you doing moments offensively and defensively," Stary said. "That's not normal for us. When you combine them (Neuqua) playing a solid game with us playing a subpar game, when you put that all together, it's not going to be a win in our column. If it would have it would have been a gift."

At the time the loss pulled the North Stars even with Neuqua Valley and St. Charles East in the conference race, but after this past week St. Charles North (7-1) now is the only conference team with 1 defeat.

There's still a long ways to go, with Lake Park (6-2), Bartlett (6-2) and Neuqua Valley (6-3) having head-to-head games left to try to keep the North Stars from repeating as UEC champs.

St. Charles East has two games remaining with the North Stars, including one at home this Tuesday. But after conference losses to South Elgin, Bartlett and Lake Park this week the Saints will need help to get back into title contention.