Plainfield Central’s fast start sinks Minooka

Updated: May 5, 2011 9:38PM

Plainfield Central’s players and coaches knew it was incumbent on them to get off to a good start against Minooka Thursday because the Wildcats needed a win to stay in the Southwest Prairie Conference race.

That’s what happened as Plainfield got off to a great start and then held on to defeat the Indians 7-4.

``I knew we had to get going right away,’’ Plainfield Central right fielder Carly Trenhaile said. ``We talked about it before the game about getting off to a good start.’’

Trenhaile took that talk to heart by taking a first pitch-fastball and hitting a rocket that hit the base of the fence in right-center field for a double that drove in two runs. The junior came to the plate with two outs and Morgan Vogt and Olivia Scott on base before she delivered her clutch hit to give the Wildcats (17-7, 8-2) an early 2-0 lead.

``We have been starting slow lately so the good start was what we needed,’’ Plainfield coach Ann Campbell said. ``Carly has been hitting the ball very well.’’

Kaleigh Nagle helped her pitching effort by using her bat. The sophomore led off the second with a triple down the left-field line. She was driven in by Dominique Roa on a groundout.

In the third, The Wildcats took a 6-1 lead after Cailey Baker, Trenhaile and Kristina Shahan came around to score after all three reached on hits. Nagle and Roa picked up RBI hits and Trenhaile helped Baker scored from third by drawing a throw to second on a fake steal.

Nagle was strong through five innings giving up only a solo home run to Kassie Marsala in the second.

``I knew I had to pitch my heart out today,’’ Nagle said. ``I think in my last inning that I got too comfortable out there.’’

Minooka (19-8, 9-1) rallied in the sixth by starting the inning with five straight hits and chasing Nagle from the game. Katie Chitkowski, Jackie Lilek and Sara Novak were the first three hitters of the inning and all came around to score to cut the lead to 6-4. The Indians had runners on second and third with no outs when they faced reliever Corey Shahan.

Shahan induced a popup, a fielder’s choice and a strikeout to work her team out of trouble.

Karly Jackson added a solo dinger for the Wildcats in the bottom of the sixth.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.