Minooka rolls past Morris

Jersey numbers formed with cups in the outfield fence and streamers wrapped around the dugout and foul poles decorated Senior Night Friday for Minooka’s softball team.

“They really get into this kind of stuff,’’ Minooka coach Mark Brown said.

From left field to right, the numbers of seniors Kim Ramsak, Payton Laczynski, Katie Chitkowski, Aly Zembruski, Christina Bonfiglio, Kayla Ruettiger and Kassie Marsala remained in place throughout the 4-1 nonconference victory over Morris.

“It was good to get ahead and get some runs behind us,’’ Laczynski said after her complete-game victory. “My curve has been working good lately.’’

A two-out, two-run homer Lindsey Fenner sent over the center-field fence in the third inning was all Laczynski and the Indians needed. Mikayla Melone (2-for-3) contributed a two-run double in the fourth.

“I haven’t been hitting real well so I was just focusing on taking the ball up the middle,’’ Fenner said of her third home run this season. “I’ve been pulling everything. I just really stayed on it and it went over.’’

“It’s good to see Lindsey getting going,’’ Brown said. “She struggled out of the gate this year.’’

A popup to Fenner at second base was the final out of the game that eased the sting from Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference loss to Plainfield Central, the Indians’ first conference defeat.

“We’ve been in a funk,’’ Brown said. “Even today I felt we should have scored a lot more than we did. We as a team haven’t played a complete game. In my eyes, the best is yet to come.’’

Minooka (20-8, 9-1) has four conference games left including Tuesday at Plainfield South and Thursday at Plainfield North. The regular season ends with conference home games against Oswego East May 17 and Romeoville May 19.

“If we win out we’ll still be in good shape,’’ Brown said. “If we can lock those four up, we’ll be conference champions.’’

Tori Hanford had an RBI single for Morris (11-11) and Emma O’Marrah had two singles and a run scored. Brittany Benson took the loss, but earned praise from coach Amy Barr.

“Brittany hasn’t started very much this season, so I was really happy to see her keep the ball down,’’ Barr said. “She did a good job tonight.’’

Next for Morris is a Tuesday home game against Sycamore.

“We have two real tough conference opponents in Sycamore and DeKalb next week,’’ Barr said. “We’ve got a tough schedule coming up.’’

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