Jacobs routs Hononegah to set up showdown with Cary-Grove

The Battle of the Valley is on.

Jacobs spotted Hononegah a 3-0 lead Thursday before breaking out the heavy aluminum and routing the Indians 10-3 in the semifinals of the Class 4A Huntley softball sectional.

The Golden Eagles (22-11-1) will meet Cary-Grove (31-6) at 10 a.m. Saturday in a battle of Fox Valley Conference Valley Division rivals for the sectional championship. The winner will advance to Monday's Judson University supersectional where it will play either Elk Grove or West Chicago at 7 p.m. for a trip to East Peoria and the Final Four.

Cary-Grove beat Jacobs 2 of 3 games this season in winning the Valley title, but the Golden Eagles were the only team to hand the Trojans a Valley loss.

"We have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We'll just have to make the plays," said Jacobs coach Jeremy Bauer of Saturday's matchup.

The Golden Eagles certainly made the plays Thursday. They played errorless softball behind the 4-hit pitching of junior Marissa Lombardo, who gave up 3 runs on 3 hits in the first three innings before allowing the Indians (23-11) just 1 hit and 2 baserunners over the final four innings. She walked four and struck out four.

"Give the credit to our pitching coach, Chris Taylor, again," Bauer said. "He's given our pitching staff and our catching staff a lot of confidence. He's doing a great job with them and Marissa has a lot of talent."

So does the Jacobs offense, which let loose for 5 runs in the fourth inning after knocking on the door but coming up empty in the second and third.

Kelsey Peterson (3-for-4, 2B) started the rally in the fourth with a leadoff single. By the time the inning was over, Jacobs had scored 5 runs on 5 hits and used one untimely Hononegah error to help the cause. Peterson was sacrificed to second by Lombardo, went to third on Nicky Chapa's single and then scored on a passed ball to make it 3-1. Chapa, who alertly went from first to third on the passed ball, scored on an error on Brooke Frederiksen's grounder to make it 3-2 and after a single by Ashley Morales (3-for-3) and a strikeout, Jenna Teson's two-out single off Hononegah freshman Stevie Atterbury plated Frederiksen with the tying run. Jacobs took the lead for good as senior Sara Jacobson's 2-run single drove in courtesy runner Morgan Harvey and Teson.

"We'd never seen this pitcher before so we had to see her for a few innings and get our timing down," said Jacobson, who finished the game 3-for-5 with 4 RBI as she doubled in the sixth and belted a 2-run home run in the top of the seventh.

"Everybody in our lineup goes together now and we're all working as a team."

Jacobs added a run in the sixth on Jacobson's double and an ensuing triple from Kara Arceneaux and then put the game away in the top of the seventh with four more. Teson drove in a run and another scored on a passed ball prior to Jacobson's 2-run bomb.

All of this coming after Hononegah had taken a 3-0 lead, 2 runs scoring on ViVi Marquez's laser shot homer to center in the second. But from there, Lombardo and the Jacobs defense yielded nothing.

"It was a little scary at first," Bauer admitted, "but we settled down, put the bat on the ball and made things happen. Hitting has been our strength all year. We've stayed consistent and put up runs against some of the best out there."

And that includes Cary-Grove freshman Lindsay Efflandt, who the Golden Eagles may have lost to twice but did beat 3-0 on April 28.

"We've seen her pitch before," Jacobson said of Efflandt, "and we've got a lot of momentum right now."