Softball: Waubonsie Valley racks up timely hits to defeat Wheaton North

Just when it looked like no one was going to score in Friday's big DuPage Valley Conference softball game, Waubonsie Valley came up with a clutch hit in the fifth inning at Wheaton North. Then the Warriors picked up another, and then another.

Visiting Waubonsie Valley delivered three straight two-out hits to break a scoreless tie and score four runs in the fifth en route to a 4-1 victory. The timely outburst proved more than enough support for Warriors pitcher Stephanie Wilczynski, who allowed a single run in the seventh while improving to 8-3 on the year.

Wheaton North pitcher Sarah Gorzak was sharp as well, blanking Waubonsie Valley (12-6, 6-1) through four innings and allowing just two singles before the fateful fifth inning.

In the top of the fifth, Tiffany Kuta opened with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. But after Gorzak retired leadoff hitter Veronica Zahn on a soft infield popout, the Warriors were in need of a clutch hit. They got three.

First Caleigh Cramer singled up the middle to drive Kuta home. Cramer took second on the throw to the plate and then she came in when Michele Calabrese drove a hard single to center. Falcons center fielder Maggie Will made a great throw home, but Cramer slid in safely to make the score 2-0. Kiara Bryant then laced a 2-run home run that barely cleared the wall in left field to make it a 4-run lead.

"Yeah, we've focused this past week on getting the runners on and moving them over and being able to get them in in those pressure situations," said Cramer, who helped the Warriors stay atop the DVC standings along with Lake Park. "So it really paid off to practice and work hard at that. I just had to wait on it and push it up the middle."

Once Cramer got her team on the board, her teammates extended the big inning. "It felt really good to get that run in. I knew my team was depending on me. Once we got one we just kept it going. It was a domino effect," the Warriors first baseman said.

Bryant, a sophomore who answers to Kiki, has 3 homers this spring. She and her teammates call the team's attack an assembly line, and she was not about to stop the Warriors production in the fifth inning Friday.

"We call that our assembly line," she said. "Every time before a game we say just keep our hits together like an assembly line. We'll string it together and manufacture those runs."

Bryant said the team's focus in practice on pressure situations has been paying off lately.

"In practice we've been working on getting pressure situations down," she said. "So we all kind of came into the dugout and said, 'Guys, this is just like practice. Hit it up the middle and hit through the ball and something good will happen.

"Obviously in the fifth inning good things did happen."

For the Falcons, who dropped to 4-3 in the DVC and 8-13 overall, it was a solid effort that included some tough pitching by Gorzak and some strong defense, especially shortstop Tess May. Wheaton North just couldn't get enough going offensively.

"Sarah did a great job and I would say our defense showed up big for us today," said Falcons coach Danielle Soraghan. "We had a lot of great plays and we stayed confident. Unfortunately our bats didn't come around as much as we wanted them do."

Wheaton North finally got on the board on Jaime Smith's double in the seventh, but Smith was stranded at third when the game ended on Lily Oviatt's liner that was hauled in by third baseman Sabrina Calabrese for the game's final out.