Softball: Vaughn, Grayslake North soar past Round Lake

Perhaps spying the adjacent wetlands, three brave geese flew dangerously low across the pitching circle on Grayslake North's softball diamond.

Seconds later, Grayslake North's Jessica Vaughn hit a screamer. The ball's path cut across the same air space just vacated by the geese. Round Lake left fielder Gina Placencio hustled back and caught Vaughn's flyball near the fence.

Lucky geese.

"I'm not trying to kill the birds," Vaughn said with a laugh after her bat and arm helped lift Grayslake North to a 7-2 win over the 10th-seeded Panthers in a play-in game of the Class 4A McHenry regional on Monday. "I've thrown a few high pitches this year that might have killed a bird or two."

No joke, the truth is, Vaughn was glad she wasn't a victim of bad timing again. Last year, she suffered a concussion late in the season and missed Grayslake North's state tournament opener against Round Lake, which pulled off the upset.

"That was a little rough," Vaughn said. "So I wanted to come out and (smiling) show them that there's no messing with Grayslake North."

Jenna Pozezinski hit a 2-run homer off the scoreboard in right field in the bottom of the sixth to all but officially secure No. 8 Grayslake North (15-18) a berth in Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. regional semifinal against No. 2 Prairie Ridge at McHenry.

Round Lake (6-25) started only two seniors in third baseman Katie Bleim and right fielder Kaityln Caballero. The Panthers' other starters included four sophomores and two freshmen.

"Grayslake (North) did a good job," Round Lake coach Patrick DeDina said. "We made some mistakes, but (young players) do that. We fielded the ball well. We just didn't hit."

Round Lake junior Leighlani Yazzie blanked Grayslake North for the first two innings, before allowing 3 runs in the third. She went the distance, as the Knights had trouble stringing together hits against her.

"She was fooling us," Grayslake North coach Lea Corcoran said. "We were hitting a lot of pop-ups. We needed to make an adjustment. She did a great job of keeping our hitters off balance."

Pozezinski drew the pitching start for Grayslake North and had a no-hitter with 6 strikeouts through 3 innings. But she allowed a leadoff single to Bleim leading off the fourth, then walked Yazzie. When Caballero reached on an infield single, scoring Bleim, Corcoran called on Vaughn, who was playing shortstop.

Pozezinski had surgery two years ago to repair a torn labrum in her hip and then dislocated her hip last fall, Corcoran said.

"We're trying not to push her too much. She threw well," Corcoran said. "Looking at her, I thought she was feeling a little tight. She was doing a good job of battling through it. She's a gamer."

Vaughn relieved Pozezinski and immediately got help from catcher Carissa Popp, who picked a runner off third base. Vaughn pitched 4 innings of 1-hit ball, allowing only 1 run (unearned) while striking out four and walking three.

"I came in and finished what (Pozezinski) started," said Vaughn, who last week was named her school's female athlete of the year. "I thought she pitched a great game."

Pozezinski finished 3-for-4 with 4 RBI to pace Grayslake North's 11-hit attack. Vaughn, whose third-inning RBI single started the scoring, and Molly Rutkowski each had 2 hits for the Knights.

Bleim, Caballero and slapper Alexis Cordova had the only hits for Round Lake.

"Hopefully things will pick up next year," DeDina said. "We're young."