Softball: Lake Park edges St. Charles East in battle of DuKane leaders
Lake Park made the most of the few times it was able to put the bat on the ball in Monday's DuKane Conference game at St. Charles East.
Despite striking out 15 times against Saints right-hander Izzy Howe, the Lancers eked out a 3-2 win.
Lake Park pitchers Mia Savage and Donna D'Addabbo shut down St. Charles East's offense, limiting the Saints to three hits.
The Lancers' win makes it less crowded at the top of conference. Going into Monday's action, St. Charles East, Lake Park and St. Charles North were tied for first with identical league records of 6-1. Lake Park has given the Saints both of their DuKane losses.
"If you are going to beat a pitcher like (Howe), you've got squeak across three or four runs and you got to be flawless in every other aspect," said Lake Park coach Tom Mazzie. "We did just enough. We ran the bases well. Also, our pitching came up big, and the defense was unbelievable. We didn't make an error and we stole some balls in the outfield."
In the first inning, Lancers leadoff batter Michela Barbanente reached on a misplayed infield popup. She scored on Bre Caper's one-out single to left field. The senior center fielder stole second and scampered home on Cailynn Gdowski's infield single that put Lake Park (12-6, 7-1) up 2-0.
After Caper's hit, Howe retired the next 14 batters, 12 on strikeouts.
Nikki Johnston, St. Charles East's leadoff hitter, coaxed a walk from Savage to start the Saints' first at-bat but only got as far as second base as the junior right-hander retired the next three batters. St. Charles East (17-3, 6-2) cleanup hitter CiCi Wilson struck out for the third out but gave Savage a battle. She fouled off four pitches including two that just missed being extra-base hits.
After having a three-up, three-down inning in the second, Savage gave up a leadoff single to Chloe Hild in the bottom of the third. Stephanie Schnite, the next batter, smashed a two-run home run just to the right of the scoreboard in left field to tie the game.
After Savage went through St. Charles East's line up once, Mazzie replaced her in the circle with left-handed senior D'Addabbo. The southpaw finished the game to earn the win and only allowed three baserunners on a walk, a hit batter and a single.
"This entire season we have been a two to three pitchers a game team. Their role is to get through the lineup once," Mazzie said of the pitching change. "And if they have nasty stuff on a given day, I'll give them a second time through. (D'Addabbo) had nasty stuff today. She was able to keep them off-balance and she got a second time through the order."
"My curve ball and my changeup were shutting them down," said D'Addabbo.
Lancers catcher Lindsay Onnezi erased two of the runners. She threw out Johnston trying to steal second base in the third inning and picked Wilson off first base in the fourth.
Barbanente opened Lake Park's sixth with a single up the middle. After stealing second, the shortstop scored the winning run on an infield error
Lake Park's Brynn Sheedy tallied the only other extra-base hit of the game, a leadoff double to center in the seventh inning.
"Howe is as good as they get around here. When you have her pitching for you, if you can put three or more runs, you are in a good spot," said St. Charles East coach Jarod Gutesha. "We have been hitting the ball all season long and today wasn't our day at the plate."