Softball: Mundelein cooks up win over Lake Zurich
To start their spring campaign this season, Mundelein's softball team spent a few days in Tennessee playing a quartet of games at the Cal Ripken Experience in Pigeon Forge.
In addition to that, coach Kat McCreery came up with a team cooking contest based on the reality series, "Top Chef" in which team members took turns cooking meals for one another as McCreery and her assistants served as judges.
One of the entrees, a breakfast casserole, was made by freshmen teammates Shae Johnson and Kieley Tomas.
"It was actually good," co-creator Johnson said of her joint effort with Tomas.
So was their 12-5 win at Lake Zurich Tuesday evening that allowed them to keep their front-running pace stop the North Suburban Conference standings.
It began with Johnson's complete game win in the circle as she fanned seven.
The Mustang freshman hurler added a two-run homer in the top of the seventh as she went 1-for-3 at the plate in addition to scoring a run as part of a three-run first on junior second sacker Lillian Scardicchio's two-run double.
"I feel good," Johnson said of her pitching performance. "I felt like that at the end I definitely lost a little bit of steam, a little bit of control, but I think at the beginning I was really strong."
Mundelein (11-2, 3-0) showed its strength in building an 8-0 lead through the first five innings adding one run in the second and a pair of two-run frames in both the fourth and fifth as they connected for 10 hits in the game.
Freshman DH Casey Vyverman (2-3, 3 runs scored) led the hit parade followed by multiple hit efforts by Scardicchio (2-4, 2 RBI) and Tomas (2-5, 3 RBI).
"We have a lot of competitive girls and that's really exciting," McCreery said. "Girls that play to win and that's so important for an athlete to play to win always and play not to lose. I think our team never feels defeated. They're always picking each other up."
Lake Zurich (1-10, 0-3) tallied its runs in the final two innings scoring three in the sixth and a pair in the seventh on a two-run double by Grace Staehle (2-4).
The Bears travel to Lake Forest Wednesday for their NSC Monday makeup.
"What we've focusing on is trying to take away the positive from our games," Lake Zurich coach Kelly Hardbarger said. "Yes we ended up losing, but there were things we did well. We did score some runs, but honestly we didn't give up and I think that's what we've been looking for from our girls (is) to have heart and be able to push through and play the full game through the seventh inning."