Softball: Dundee-Crown 2nd at Larkin Slugfest; St. Edward's Zdroik throws perfect game
Through 21 games this season, the Dundee-Crown softball team has had some ups as well as some downs.
That's what young teams go through, reminds Chargers' coach Tracy Beatty.
Saturday was mostly up for D-C, which finished second at the 23rd annual Larkin Slugfest at the Elgin Sports Complex.
The Chargers (11-10) beat Larkin 13-3 in the opening round, then downed Oak Lawn 2-1 in 10 innings in the semifinals before falling to Joliet West 9-3 in the championship game.
Meanwhile, St. Edward won the consolation title and Green Wave senior Lindsay Zdroik was named the tournament MVP after the Valparaiso recruit pitched a perfect game and struck out all 15 batters she faced in a 13-0 five-inning win over Elgin in the second round. After losing to Joliet West 7-1 in the first round, the Wave beat Larkin 10-0 in the consolation championship.
Dundee-Crown's best game of the day was against Oak Lawn, when the Chargers were able to sustain several Spartan scoring threats before finally plating the winning run in the top of the 10th when Jessica Sanders' single drove home Hannah Gestrich, who started the inning on second base as the game was placed into international tiebreaker rules. Megan Emerson sacrificed Gestrich to third and she scored when Sanders looped a single over shortstop.
Sophomore Sydney Ruggles, who pitched all 10 innings and struck out 12, was able to get a strikeout and a groundout in the bottom of the 10th with the tying run at third base.
But by pitching 10 innings against Oak Lawn, Ruggles could only go 4 innings in the title game due to the long-standing Slugfest rule that limits pitchers to 14 innings. Joliet West had just a 1-0 lead when Ruggles exited but the Tigers came up with an 8-run sixth off reliever Kayla Sjodin to put the game away. The Tigers claimed their second straight Slugfest title - they won in 2014 and last year the tournament was rained out.
"Rugs had to come off and that changed things for us," said Beatty, whose team has no seniors. "But I thought defensively all three games we played very good. I'd like to have seen our bats be more consistent but we don't give up. These kids keep battling. We're still young and it means we don't stay focused sometimes. We're talking to them all the time about day-to-day focus. But these kids love the game of softball and they work hard at it every day."
Ruggles and Claire Weeks, who each hit home runs against Larkin, were named to the all-tournament team along with Deanna Origer.
In addition to Zdroik, St. Edward (12-5) placed Rachel Lesh on the all-tournament team. She had 5 hits on the day for the Green Wave, who got home runs from Allison Stratman against Larkin and Zdroik against Elgin.
Larkin (2-13) was able to notch a 10-9 win over Streamwood (7-10) in the second round after the Royals lost to the Sabres twice during the week. They scored 3 runs in the bottom of the seventh, with Gloria Stoltz doubling home Jocelyn Jimenez with the winning run. Stoltz was named to the all-tournament team for the Royals as was Jessica Daley for Streamwood, which beat Elgin 10-3 in the second round after falling to Oak Lawn 4-1 in the first round.
Hampshire (10-10) took fourth place, beating Elgin 18-2, losing to Joliet West 12-5 then falling to Oak Lawn 10-9 in eight innings in the third place game. Melissa Esparza and Jasmine Lopez were named all-tournament for the Whip-Purs.
Jessica Rago made the all-tournament team for Elgin (3-14).