Meline, Vernon Hills blank CL Central

Megan Meline was a machine.

The Vernon Hills sophomore struck out 13 batters and allowed just 1 hit, and also went 3-for-4 at the plate, as the Cougars shut out Crystal Lake Central 2-0 in the teams' Class 3A regional semifinal at Vernon Hills on Thursday.

Vernon Hills (17-18), which advances to its own regional final and will play Wauconda on Saturday, scored both of its runs in the seventh thanks to RBI by Meline and Paige Kahalnik.

Sara Doerhoefer had the Cougars' lone extra-base hit, a triple.