Softball: Glenbard South bats continue to thunder
Glenbard South is still tinkering with its early season lineup on defense and working out a few kinks on the field, but the Raiders offense is in midseason form.
On the heels of Monday's 19-run thumping of Bartlett, the Raiders scored 14 unanswered runs to knock off Glenbard East 16-4 in five innings Tuesday afternoon in Glen Ellyn.
Junior shortstop Grace Wallner had the biggest day, going 4-for-4 with 6 RBI, but every starter reached multiple times as the Raiders' batters recorded 12 hits, 8 walks and even a pair of hit batsmen in just four innings at the plate.
"I felt really confident lately," said Wallner, who has 7 hits over the last two games. "The start of my season was rough, but I've been focusing on relaxing and seeing the ball better. That's been helping me a lot yesterday and today."
After Jessica Villa walked to lead off the bottom of the first and Elizabeth Cizek was hit by a pitch, a sacrifice bunt set the stage for Wallner's two-out line single to give the Raiders (2-2) a quick 2-0 lead.
Glenbard East then took a 4-2 lead off Raiders starter Olivia Lake. The Rams' big inning was aided by a pair of errors, but Anna Cameron did deliver an RBI double to the wall and Joselyn Molinar drove in two more runs with a bloop single.
But the Raiders' bats answered with four runs in the third and then a 10-run explosion in the fourth to pull away. Glenbard South relief pitcher Ella Little tossed 2⅓ innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.
"I just got done telling them I think our lineup 1-9 is something that means teams can't take a break," Raiders coach Julie Fonda said. "There's not really a hole in the lineup and we put the ball in play."
That strategy - put the ball in play or reach via a walk or hit batsmen - has led to 35 runs the last two days.
"That's kind of the name of our game. Defensively, we're still trying to put the puzzle together. (But on offense) My lefties at bottom of order and Jessie at the top, that's a new dimension and that also puts the pressure on the other defense, too."
Little can't complain about the run support she's picked up from her teammates the last couple days.
"I feel like we're playing pretty well even though we're still trying to put things together and getting some people used to positions, but we're getting there," said the senior pitcher, 2-for-2 with a walk and 3 runs. "It feels pretty good. We can all count each other to get a hit and this lineup will score runs."
Rams coach Dawn Chantos has just one senior on the roster and two new pitchers, but she likes the effort so far from her 1-3 squad.
"We don't have that pitching (yet)," she said. "We had a 4-2 lead, the girls were hitting great, playing great defense, but right now we're struggling a little. The girls are competing at their best and I'm very happy with the way they're performing."