Softball: West Aurora aces Naperville Central
Carley Frauenhoff says her job is easy.
That's not the conventional wisdom for a catcher, the most demanding position on the diamond. But with a one-two punch like West Aurora brings with junior Hannah Beatus and freshman Payton Lundberg, Frauenhoff's reasoning becomes crystal clear.
Beatus and Lundberg teamed up Tuesday on a 2-hit shutout of Naperville Central, leading the No. 2 seeded Blackhawks to a 6-0 win in the Class 4A Batavia regional semifinals.
West Aurora (27-3) will play either Batavia or Bolingbrook for the regional championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.
"They make my job so much easier," Frauenhoff said. "All I really have to do is catch it. It's great to have such a great pitching staff. They (Naperville Central) knocked us out last year so we really wanted to knock them out this year.
"We know we have good pitching, we have our defense behind them, and then we just have to hit."
Frauenhoff did her share of that, going 3-for-3 and driving in West Aurora's first 3 runs.
That was more than enough the way the Blackhawks are pitching. Beatus entered the game with a 0.65 ERA and lowered that with her 5 shutout innings, striking out five and walking one, improving her record to 14-3.
Lundberg struck out the side in both the sixth and seventh innings, stranding the bases loaded in the seventh after she walked two and hit a batter.
Those two scoreless innings run Lundberg's streak to 46 innings this year without allowing a run. She has struck out 114, walked 15 and allowed 6 hits.
"It was a good experience to have her throw and get her in this environment," said Blackhawks coach Randy Hayslett of Lundberg, who struck out 25 straight hitters earlier this spring and in her 5 starts has thrown a perfect game, a no-hitter and two 1-hitters.
"I wanted her to face (Lindsay) Gonzalez and a couple good hitters. We're not going to be hesitant to throw her when we need to. Hannah is a bulldog but if the situation calls for a change of pace we'll do it."
Gonzalez, the leadoff hitter for Naperville Central (11-23), had been 6-for-6 in her career against Beatus, but Beatus got the best of her Tuesday striking her out three times before Gonzalez walked against Lundberg in the seventh.
Frauenhoff's 2-out single up the middle plated Corey McCreedy for a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and her 2-run triple to right after a Cara Jimenez RBI single put the Blackhawks up 4-0 in the third. Sophia Delgado added an RBI single in the fifth.
Naperville Central committed 4 errors behind freshman pitcher Halle Arends, who stranded 9 runners on base to keep the Redhawks close. Arends and Annie Tassi both singled for the Redhawks' only hits.
"She (Arends) gave us an opportunity to win," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "Frauenhoff hurt us. I thought Halle did a really nice job. She's got a lot of potential. We had to play perfect defensively, get hits at the right time and get a couple lucky breaks. And I don't think we got any."