Loss doesn't dampen Dundee-Crown's future
DeKALB - While Dundee-Crown's aspirations of playing Huntley for a regional championship on Saturday didn't come true, just the fact the Chargers were thinking about playing for a regional title in softball is a victory of sorts for a program that has struggled to win over the past several years.
So Thursday's 5-0 loss to host DeKalb in the Barbs' Class 4A regional semifinals was disappointing for D-C, but the future definitely is not.
"Batters one through four are freshmen and No. 5 is a sophomore," said eighth-year D-C coach Tracy Beatty. "We had four freshmen and two sophomores out there. We knew we were going to get our lumps at times this season but every good thing we did is a step toward more success in the future."
And the Chargers did a lot of good things this season, like winning 16 games - an unheard of number of wins for D-C softball for at least the last 10-12 years.
They really didn't do anything wrong in Thursday's loss, they just didn't hit. But in facing junior Illinois recruit Morgan Newport, the Chargers were seeing one of the best in northern Illinois.
Newport allowed D-C (16-11) just 4 hits and struck out 12 with no walks as the second-seeded Barbs (17-12) advanced to play top seed Huntley at 10 a.m. Saturday for the regional championship. DeKalb beat Huntley 3-0 in last year's regional final.
DeKalb was able to generate enough offense in two innings of Thursday's win to support the left-handed Newport, who didn't allow a D-C runner to get past second base.
Scoreless into the bottom of the fourth, and with Chargers freshman Sydney Ruggles having allowed the Barbs just 2 hits, sophomore JC Longeville led off for the Barbs with a walk, 1 of only 2 walks issued by Ruggles, who struck out 5 and allowed 5 hits.
A costly infield error on Newport's grounder hurt the Chargers. Tayler Garland sacrificed the runners to second and third, the first run scored on Abby Taylor's fielders choice and Erin Karasewski delivered a 2-run single to right field to give DeKalb a 3-0 lead.
The Barbs added 2 runs in the fifth with D-C's second error of the game allowing a run to score and paving the way for Taylor's RBI double.
The rest was up to Newport, who allowed only a first-inning single to freshman Claire Weeks then two-out singles to Ruggles and freshman Andrea Conway in the third and a two-out double to senior Ashley Czerwinski in the seventh.
"We didn't make good decisions in the box," said Beatty. "We swung at bad pitches and our bat speed was slow sometimes. We didn't hit the ball and they did. (Newport) is a good pitcher and we knew she was strong but we had opportunities and didn't hit the ball when we needed to.
"It's disappointing but we can't let it take away from the success our program is headed to."