Softball: Well-traveled Wedl leads a Wauconda win

London. Paris. Barcelona.

And then on Tuesday, Kayla Wedl flew around second base after lining a ball into the right-center-field gap and slid safely into third base.

Does Wauconda's softball star , who enjoyed a European vacation with classmates last month, ever get tired of adventures?

Considering his team was comfortably ahead of host Grant en route to a 13-1 win, Wauconda coach Tim Rennels pulled his pitcher for a courtesy runner.

"You already ran enough. Get out of here," the umpire said with a laugh to Wedl, who reached base and scored each time in her previous three at-bats.

"I was like, 'All right,' " Wedl said, smiling.

After her leadoff triple started a five-run top of the seventh, Wedl finished off the hosts in the bottom of the inning, notching her 16th strikeout to the end the North Suburban Prairie Division game.

Wauconda (8-4, 3-1) tagged Grant sophomore pitcher Sydney Goessele for 4 runs in the first, added two more in the second and went up 8-0 in the fourth.

"The bats were the focus the last week," Rennels said after his Bulldogs pounded out 14 hits. "The ball was screaming off the bat early. That was key. It put us in a good frame of mind. People got to scramble then against Kayla, and that's really tough to do."

Grant (6-8, 1-2) didn't figure to be an easy win for Wauconda. Not considering that on Monday Grant beat a Lakes team that defeated Warren and Carmel last week.

"I don't even know what to expect anymore," Wedl said. "You just got to go out there and play."

Wedl struck out eight of the first nine batters she faced and had a perfect game until freshman Calista Warmowski led off the Grant fourth by muscling a single into shallow left field. One-out later, Erin Bengston ripped a double into right-center, scoring the athletic Warmowski from first.

Bengston added an infield single in the sixth, Paige Auckland lined a base hit to left field in the seventh, and Keyana Linbo got Grant's fifth hit off Wedl two batters later. Wedl's third walk of the game loaded the bases, but the UIC-bound righty retired the next two batters.

"I'm glad the girls saw this," Grant coach Chris Van Alstine said of facing Wedl. "To see Paige get a hit off (Wedl) was huge. Calista, it wasn't pretty, but it was a hit, and then Erin does what she does and hits it to the fence. That's what our offense can do."

Brooke Sefcik went 4-for-4 with 5 RBI for Wauconda. After Wedl singled home Wauconda's first 2 runs, Sefcik followed with her third home run of the season, a two-run shot that she muscled out to left field.

"It was off the end of my bat," said Sefcik, who also doubled in a pair of runs and had an RBI single. "I think it was an inside pitch that I waited too long on, so I got a little jammed."

Wedl finished 3-for-4, freshman Kayla Serio was 3-for-5, and Taylor McCarthy added a double. Wedl showed off her athleticism again with a safe slide into home on a throwing error in fourth. Mallory Carver, who was 2-for-4, alertly took second base on another play.

"We had a lot of good slides," Rennels said. "A lot of heads-up plays."