Glenbard North roughs up West Chicago

Emily Johnson's reaction to a surreal sixth inning in Carol Stream was no doubt shared by both sides.

"I think everyone else was in awe," the West Chicago coach said, "just like I was."

Johnson watched as Glenbard North scored 9 runs in the bottom of the sixth off West Chicago ace Mary Connolly to rally for a stunning 11-6 win.

The defending DuPage Valley Conference champions had 9 straight batters reach base by walk or hit, capped off by leadoff hitter Kelsey Muller's grand slam to center.

"We have a good hitting team," Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew said, "but against a pitcher like Connolly she gets up 6-2 she's very very tough. Our girls did a great job of looking for their pitch and they just got hit after hit."

Muller's slam on a high drive to center, her second homer of the year, came after she struck out twice earlier, and flied out to center to start the sixth.

"Pretty much down the middle, a little high maybe," Muller said of the pitch. "It felt real good when I hit it. I thought the center fielder had caught it and then coach told me to go so I went."

The inning started innocently enough with a pair of Connolly walks, her first of the game, with one out. Alyssa Jasinski, who had hit a 2-run opposite-field homer in the first, sliced a flyball to right that turned into a 2-run triple. A third walk followed, and Glenbard North then strung together four straight singles.

Connolly (10-4), who struck out seven over the first five innings, had allowed a total of 9 runs in her first three losses this season.

"You can't blame it on the umpires, you can never put the blame on anybody else," said the DePaul-bound Connolly, referring to what appeared to be a tightened strike zone. "I was kind of forced to throw it over the plate to them, but even the ones that were outside they went out and got. All props to them.

"We got up 6-2, and maybe I got too comfortable. You can't let down against a team like that."

Glenbard North freshman Ashley Stiver fouled off a tough Connolly offering with two strikes, then dropped a single to right to tie it 6-6. Natalie Shank followed with a perfect squeeze bunt to score Lilly Fecho with the go-ahead run.

"We saw a lot of good execution that inning," Sanew said. "This is a confident group of kids. They never give up."

Glenbard North (10-4, 2-1) avoided falling two games back one week into what shapes up to be a competitive DVC race.

"This was pretty much a must win for us after losing to Naperville North on Monday," Sanew said. "In this conference anybody can beat anybody."

West Chicago (13-6, 2-1), which saw its nine-game winning streak snapped, did string together 11 hits and played error-free softball. Taylor Dash gave the Wildcats a 3-2 lead with an RBI double in the fourth, Connolly singled in a run in the fifth and West Chicago tacked on 2 more runs in the top of the sixth.

"We made some great plays, we had some great hits and we were ahead the entire game until the end," Johnson said. "Sometimes that's how it goes."