Softball: Lincoln-Way Central edges Barrington
Prior to Tuesday's game played in the ultra-chilly weather conditions at the Fields of Dreams in Barrington, the last time Barrington and Lincoln-Way Central met on the softball diamond was for the Class 4A state championship game in East Peoria.
The weather that June 7th in 2008 was some 50 degrees warmer and Lincoln-Way Central assistant coach Scott Gardner, not even a member of the program yet, remembered it was his wedding day when the Knights posted a 4-1 triumph for their first state crown.
On Tuesday, he was in charge of the Knights' varsity because head coach Jeff Tarala's fifth child was born on Monday.
Once Tuesday's game ended, the Knights, ranked No. 2 in the Class 4A ICA state poll, quickly pulled out their phones and began face-timing Tarala. They delivered some more good news, a 6-5 victory over the No. 3 ranked Fillies (3-1).
LWC (2-0) got a combined 7-hitter from Virginia Tech-bound senior and leadoff batter Lyndsey Grein (3-for-4 at the plate) and freshman Lisabella Dimitrijevic, who earned her first career win with 8 strikeouts in the final three innings.
Barrington junior Allie Goodwin (3-1) went all seven innings (7 hits, 4 strikeouts) in a game that saw four lead changes.
The Fillies, who committed 3 errors in the first inning and fell behind 2-0, rallied twice for leads, getting all the RBI from Ainsley Muno's 3-run homer in the third inning for a 3-2 lead, and her 2-run blast in the fifth inning to make it 5-4.
With her team down 6-5, Muno came to bat in the bottom of the seventh with one out. Emma Kavanagh (2-for-2, 2 walks) was on first after drawing her second straight walk. The sophomore catcher took second with some crafty baserunning, and then the count went to 3-0 on Muno when she was intentionally walked.
"Once we made that defensive mistake and (Kavanagh) advanced to second base, it actually helped us because we were able to make that decision to put (Muno) on first base and that was it," Gardner said.
Dimitrijevic struck out the final two batters to send the Knights home a winner.
"Their catcher (Kavanagh) really set the table today with her 2 hits and walks," Gardner added. "She hit the ball hard and did a nice job."
And Muno (2-for-3) did a beautiful job with her bases-clearing blasts over the left field fence, one on the first pitch she saw and the other on an 0-1 count.
"I just went up there looking for a pitch early," said the junior first baseman.
"Ainsley had a great day," said Fillies coach Perry Peterson. "We've got to continue to work hard. These are the type of teams we've got to play if we want to go somewhere at the end of the season and we are excited for what the season brings to us going forward."
Brynn Nevers, Nikki Vojack and Teagan Buckley also had hits for Barrington.
"It was a good learning experience," Muno said. "It's good to play against good teams early in the season so we are more prepared for the playoffs. As a team, we have to battle back better and compete harder. And we can definitely work hard in practice by cleaning up our fielding."