Softball: Perfection for Albrecht as Barrington (27-0) downs Fremd
It's been a perfect season so far for the 27-0 Barrington softball team.
So why not throw in a perfect game in your biggest conference game of the season?
That's exactly what Jackie Albrecht did on Tuesday when she retired 21 straight batters while blanking visiting Fremd 3-0 and giving Barrington its 19th Mid-Suburban League divisional title and 15th under hall of fame coach Perry Peterson.
Albrecht's gem, which included 18 infield groundouts and 3 strikeouts, was her third no-hitter of the season and second perfect game (she also had a five-inning one against Sandburg).
"Jackie was masterful," said Peterson, whose team improved to 13-0 in the MSL West. "She knew what was on the line for this game today. She knew she had to take charge and minimize a real good hitting team in Fremd (17-8, 10-2). She was dominant, I'm super proud of what she did and super proud of her teammates for playing terrific defense."
"It's very special," said Albrecht, the Fillies' only senior who will be honored on Wednesday for Senior Day against Schaumburg. "We had great defense tonight."
And she got all the offense she needed in the first inning when catcher Ainslee Muno, batting cleanup, belted the first pitch she saw high over the left field fence for a 2-run homer that drove home sophomore Allie Goodwin, who had singled sharply to left with one out.
It was Muno's seventh homer of the season and came two innings before freshman Emma Kavanagh blasted a 1-1 pitch over the fence for her team-high 13th homer and a 3-0 lead. The Fillies now have 48 homers, just 6 shy of the school-record 54.
Vikings ace Grace Hiller retired 10 of the last 11 batters she faced.
"Grace is a phenomenal pitcher and she has shown that all season," said Fremd coach Josh Teschner. "While she maybe didn't have her best stuff, she kept them to 4 hits and 3 runs. We should have been able to fight back and we just didn't do it today."
One of the Vikings' hardest hits came off the bat of Gina Dudley, who hit a smash to third. But Byrnn Nevers stopped the shot, picked it up off the sand and fired a strike to first baseman Kavanagh for the out. In all, Nevers had 5 assists, 1 shy of second baseman Goodwin (6). Kavanagh had 18 putouts.
"We had terrific infield defense," Peterson said. "Those kids were just sharp. Everyone made big plays. Byrnn was stellar on that bullet hit at her."
Even Albrecht made two nice plays in the final inning, including a leaping grab for a chopper off the bat of Fremd's dangerous leadoff batter, Kalyn McCarthy.
"We knew she was leading off that inning and we knew we had to keep her off base," Albrecht said. "Brynn made that amazing play the inning before. This feels really nice. We know Fremd is a really tough opponent. We didn't come out as strong as we would have liked on the offensive side. But defensively, we were really strong."
Nevers also had a 2-out single to left in the fifth inning but Hiller got the next batter on an unassisted putout by shortstop Anna Poss.
"There is a reason they are 27-0," Teschner said. "That's an excellent, excellent team. You miss as a pitch and they make you pay.
"We felt we had a really good game plan for them. We kept them run-wise to where we should have been able to compete and scrap for the win. But when your pitcher is hitting her spots like (Albrecht) did, it's tough to make that happen. You have to find a way to bust it up, a line drive, a deep popout or just something that shows you are ready to execute the game plan and we did not do that. She executed her game plan, and we did not."