Elmwood Park 4, Fenton 2
Fenton compiled some big numbers this softball season, its 24 wins a program record.
Elmwood Park scored a bigger number where it counted on Thursday, beating the Bison 4-2 in a Class 3A Trinity sectional semifinal at Triton College in River Grove.
Topping Metro Suburban Conference foe Fenton for the third time in four games en route to its first sectional final appearance, No. 3 seed Elmwood Park (25-13) sent No. 2 Fenton off course with a 2-run first inning.
"We talked all along -- first inning, shut them out and get on the board," said Fenton coach Dave Mello. "It's a different game if we play from ahead. It didn't work out that way."
Still, Fenton (24-15) wasn't shaking.
"We came out knowing that they're going to be strong, they're going to try putting as many as they could on us the first inning. We were ready," said Bison pitcher Amber Schwarzinger (20-13), who struck out five and allowed 8 hits.
Tigers leadoff batter Diana Gordon hit an infield pop-up that was dropped. After a sacrifice bunt, left fielder Meghan McNulty clubbed an RBI double. Pitcher Kristin Jakobsen followed with a triple for a 2-0 lead for the Tigers, who start six freshmen.
This soothed Elmwood Park coach Erica Hanrahan, whose team was extended to a seventh-inning rally in its regional title win.
"We didn't want to have that feeling where we're waiting, we're waiting, we're waiting. And they took advantage of it," said Hanrahan, a birthday girl Thursday.
Fenton drew within 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning. Schwarzinger reached on an infield hit, then scored on Angelica Jensen's single that scooted under the glove of Elmwood Park's right fielder.
The Bison tied it 2-2 in the fourth. Right fielder Lauren Stanek's bases-loaded single between third and short scored Deanna Vazquez, but Schwarzinger was thrown out at the plate and the rally stalled.
Elmwood Park answered in the fifth. Getting runners on by a throwing error and a fielder's choice, McNulty and Jakobsen capitalized with RBI hits for a 4-2 Tigers lead.
Jakobsen (24-11) stranded six runners over the last three innings, wiggling out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth to send Elmwood Park into Saturday's sectional final against Trinity.
"Once they took the lead again," Mello said, "we didn't come up with the big hit."
Overall Fenton was a big hit, winning a conference title for the first time in 31 years and its first regional title ever.
"This season we all had the desire to win," Fenton catcher Sasha Molina said. "We actually had passion. And it finally took us somewhere big."