Softball: Fremd blanks Palatine on Senior Day
Fremd third baseman Cali DiVito was naturally quite pleased with her team's 8-0 shutout of visiting Palatine on Saturday morning.
Most of all because it was Senior Day.
"It was especially nice after getting rained out (Friday)," said the veteran third baseman who will play for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh next spring. "We got to play in the sun today and it was fun getting a win over Palatine."
A win in which Vikings coach Josh Teschner had his seven seniors in the starting lineup, including winning pitcher Grace Hiller (13-4 after a 1-hitter), Dana Jandura, Abby Cabrales, Madi Johnson, Amanda Timonen and Marissa Chalmers.
"One of the things we've talked about all season is stepping up when you get an opportunity to do that, and all the girls did that," Teschner said. "The seniors responded and came out and played very, very well. It was fun."
The fun began early for the Vikings (19-8) when DiVito's 2-out infield basehit got home Kalyn McCarthy for a 1-0 lead.
It became 3-0 in the third when sophomore Anna Poss led off with a double to left center and scored when Jandura reached on an error. Jandura later came home on a wild pitch. Palatine avoided further damage in the inning with a nifty 5-3-2 double play (Kaitlyn Reed to Nicole Marceau to Grace Adame).
The big inning was the fifth when the hosts collected their final 5 runs on 7 hits, including a 1-out homer by Poss (3-for-4) and a 2-run shot by DiVito to left. Later in the inning, Timonen singled home 2 runs after Gina Dudley and Johnson had singled.
DiVito's homer was her second of the month.
"Cali's bat since May 1 has been getting hotter and hotter," Teschner said. "She has hit so many other hard balls and she's ready to carry it into June."
"Anna hit that one first and it got everyone going," DiVito said. "We put up 5 runs in the inning so that was good."
Poss finished as the game's only player with 3 hits while DiVito was the only one with 2.
"Anna Poss has been a stalwart in our lineup all season long," Teschner said. "She hasn't moved from the No. 2 spot. She puts the ball in play all the time. She has great at-bats and she works, works and works. She is one of those kids we're happy to have in the program who wants to work as hard as she does. And she has taken the lead from the seniors. She and Cali work great together on the left side of the infield. "
Hiller (5 strikeouts) worked hard again on the mound, giving up her only hit on a liner up the middle by Angie Delgado with one out in the second. The ball hit off Hiller's glove and went into center field.
"This game probably put Grace's ERA at under 1.0 for conference play," Teschner said. "This is what Grace does. What did they have - four or more batters with 8-pitch at-bats and Grace still won the at-bat? She commands the strike zone. She does not give free passes and she makes batters work."
Sophomore Ryanne Goodwin hit a 2-run homer to center for the Vikes in the bottom of the sixth that was disallowed.
"Taken away as a result of a coaches' error," Teschner said. "Ryan deserves it. It was a great at-bat. "Unfortunately, I gave the umpire the change before the inning and not before the at-bat. So that's on me. I wear that."
Palatine coach Nicole Capalbo, whose club is 13-9, gave credit to the Vikings.
"Kudos to Fremd on its Senior Day," she said. "I think they had energy on a beautiful Saturday. Whenever we play Fremd, it's going to be a dogfight and he (Teschner) has a nice team. We didn't make the adjustments we needed in the batters box. You've got to score runs against Fremd and we didn't do that."