WW South’s Granger stymies Redhawks

Updated: May 6, 2011 11:34PM

Hannah Granger’s luck changed for the better on Friday.

The Wheaton Warrenville South pitcher gave up just two hits to Naperville Central – both to Kelsey Gonzalez – as the Tigers won 6-1 in DuPage Valley Conference action on Women’s Awareness Day, when both teams wore pink and black T-shirts.

Granger, a senior, finished with eight strikeouts and two walks for the Tigers (16-11, 5-4). Gonzalez had the first hit in the first and the second in the sixth inning.

“She’s been somewhat of a hard-luck loser this season,” Wheaton South coach Denise McCance said of Granger, who improved to 10-8. “She has done really well. She’s kept us in every game. She’s a good pitcher. Some of the losses were really close, but she has pitched really, really well.”

“(Granger) was sharp today,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum added.

One of the two walks Granger allowed scored. Nicole Kappelman led the game off with a walk. She advanced on Gonzalez’s single and scored Naperville Central’s lone run when she came home as Gonzalez stole second.

From that point on, it was all Wheaton South. The Tigers responded in the bottom of the inning with three runs on four hits, including a two-run double from Granger and an RBI single from Kristy Santora.

The Tigers struck again in the second with three more runs, thanks to RBI singles from Rayanna Becker, Bekah Munday and again from Granger. By then, Naperville Central (15-5, 6-2) made a pitching change from Kristina Vizza to Alyssa Wunderlich.

After the pitching change (with no outs in the second), Wunderlich held the Tigers to just a pair of hits. She finished with five strikeouts and no walks.

“Alyssa threw well,” Nussbaum said. “We just didn’t support Kristina very well. It was tough.”

“She definitely gave us a chance to come back and score some runs,” Gonzalez added on Wunderlich. “We needed to do better on offense for her and Kristina too.”

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