Downers S. sweeps 3 at SCE invite
Downers Grove South was the only softball team to leave St. Charles East's tournament with a 3-0 record Saturday.
The Mustangs topped St. Charles East, Lyons and Hoffman Estates and improved to 15-3 overall.
"We scored a total of 29 runs in three games, so I was really pleased with that," Downers Grove South coach Ron Havelka said. "We were really in a groove today. The girls really came ready to go. Everyone contributed, which was nice."
Hoffman Estates went 2-1, Freeport and Lyons finished 1-2, West Aurora went 1-1-1 and the host Saints dropped two games and tied with the Blackhawks.
"It was a good tournament," Hoffman Estates coach Lindsey Hamma said of her team's second-place finish. "We did some good things."
The six-team tournament was supposed to start with two games Friday, but poor weather caused the tournament to be reduced to three games. St. Charles East coach Eric Ray was concerned Saturday's games were in jeopardy as well.
"It was kind of depressing," Ray said of Friday's games being wiped out.
Ray said around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the fields weren't looking too good, either.
"After all that rain (Friday), there was standing water on all three fields," Ray said. "It's pointless to have a tournament and not try to get any of the games in with all these teams traveling here. I'm happy everyone got three games in."
The Mustangs set the tone early with their first win of the day, a 15-0 rout over the Saints. They followed that with a come-from-behind win in the seventh inning over Lyons, 4-3.
Against St. Charles East, pitcher Karissa Habe1 threw a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts and 1 walk and teammates Brooke Andresen, Katie Jelinek and Ashley Dec each hit home runs. Jelinek finished with 2 home runs and 4 RBI and Andresen had 6 RBI for the Mustangs.
"They hit the ball well, and we knew they were going to hit the ball well," Ray said of the Mustangs, who scored 11 runs in the fifth inning. "We told our defense to be ready."
Both the Mustangs and Hoffman Estates entered the third game of the day 2-0, but it was Downers Grove South that came up with a 10-0 win, thanks to another no-hitter from Habel (8-2) and 3 RBI from Andresen.
"We really came out and swung," Havelka said. "I've always said hitting is contagious, and it seemed like once a couple of our girls started hitting the ball, a bunch of them followed up on it."
"(Habel) really mixed things up, so it was tough for us to get anything started," Hamma said. "They played solid defense behind her. I was very impressed with them."
The Hawks (5-13) started with an 8-5 win over West Aurora and turned around and topped Freeport 9-1.
"We made several errors in that game (against the Hawks), and came up short," West Aurora coach Dave Zine added. "But we rallied and ended up scoring some runs. We haven't been doing that a lot lately, so that was important for us."
West Aurora (14-5) waited until the third game to record a win. The Blackhawks beat Freeport 1-0, thanks to Ali Sherman's RBI single that allowed Devin Vaughn to score.
(Sherman's) hit was big," Zine said.
It was the battle of two left-handed pitchers in 6 innings when West Aurora and St. Charles East played in the second game. Becker finished with 8 strikeouts, 2 walks and 3 hits while Victoria Perez for the Saints ended with 3 strikeouts, 1 walk and 2 hits in the scoreless affair.