Softball: Hersey comes from behind to beat St. Viator
Hersey senior second baseman Avery Meyer, who bats eighth in the lineup, was her team's only multiple hitter on Monday in Arlington Heights.
But much more significant was the fact that both hits came in the same inning, which happened to be the sixth when Hersey earned its come-from-behind 8-7 nonconference softball triumph over crosstown rival St. Viator.
Trailing 4-2 with only 1 hit going into the bottom of the sixth, Meyer ignited a 6-run rally when she beat out an infield hit down the third base line.
No. 9 hitter Shaily Patel then came through with a single to left and before you knew it, leadoff batter Livia Christopher reached on an error to load the bases with no outs.
Brook Sharlau's bad-hop single to left brought home 2 runs and the Huskies were on their way to 6 runs and 3 hits, the last coming on Meyer's RBI single to left to make it 8-4.
"We are not going to quit," said Meyer, after her team ran its record to 4-1 with its only loss to state power Barrington in the title game of the Spring Fling. "We just have to keep working hard and make adjustments at the plate. We were able to do that and come back."
The young Lions (1-4) tried their best to duplicate the Huskies' comeback when they pushed across 3 runs in the top of the seventh and had the tying run on third base when winning pitcher Sabrina DiVito got the final out on a fly to right fielder Patel.
Coincidentally, the Lions started their rally with hits from No. 8 and 9 hitters (junior Leah Klostermann and freshman Stella Zafiris) before freshman leadoff batter Maggie Ratzki (3-for-4, 2 doubles) smacked an RBI double to right-center to make it 8-5.
Brook Cwik's sacrifice fly followed by Jillian Bollard's RBI groundout to Meyer for the second out got the Lions to within 8-7.
It was Cwik who gave the visitors a 3-0 lead with nobody out in the first inning when she belted a 3-run blast over the center field fence for her second homer of the season.
"We have a young team and they have a lot of energy," said Lions coach John Scotillo, who starts four freshmen, one sophomore and four juniors. They are going to be good. Our future is bright.
"We made a lot of mistakes but for the most part we played over them. I'm really proud of the girls, They did a great job.
"When you win six of the seven innings, you should win a game. We got some bad breaks there and that was it. Grace (Gerdes-Grabowy) lost the strike zone a little bit and we had that bad hop. But give Hersey credit. They hung in there and hit when they had to."
Three of Hersey's 4 hits (infield single by Amanda Frankenberg in the third inning) came in the decisive sixth inning.
"Having Avery and Shaily getting those hits at the bottom of the order to get us to the top was huge," said Hersey coach Molly Freeman. "They really got us going.
"The conditions out there weren't perfect but I've got to give it to our field guys. They came out here all day to work on it and allow us to play. We started out a little slow but our defense held us. We kept working and working until the bats eventually came around."
DiVito (4-1) has all the decisions for the Huskies.
"She took one off her foot so it was touch and go there, but she is a tough kid," Freeman added. "She plays basketball, too, and she knows how to come out here and compete.
"It's always nice to have a tough game like this between two area teams who respect each other."