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Green Wave storms into sectional final
Updated: May 26, 2011 11:08PM
With threatening weather approaching, St. Edward’s softball team needed to get its offense ignited in a hurry during a scoreless battle against Walther Lutheran Wednesday at the Lisle Class 2A Sectional semifinals.
The explosion was sudden and extremely effective. An 11-run third inning, in which 15 Green Wave players batted, led to a 12-0 five-inning St. Edward victory by the slaughter rule, and both teams managed to get off Benedictine University’s softball field before the lightning and rain began.
“Energy is contagious,” St. Edward center fielder Veronica Rolando said about her team’s offense. “Once someone gets started, everyone just jumps on it.”
The Green Wave explosion led to a third straight postseason battle against Lisle. The teams will play for the sectional title at Benedictine University at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We have a lot to work on,” St. Edward coach Jaci Corn said.
St. Edward pitcher Sarah Field (16-9) threw a one-hitter Wednesday, striking out seven for her third straight postseason shutout, and the Green Wave backed her with a 12-hit attack.
Having had its previous two seasons ended by Lisle, the Green Wave knows it can’t afford another slow start like Wednesday’s. Then again, it wasn’t entirely unexpected when pitcher Dee Dee Kruckenburg (3-11) held St. Edward scoreless until the third inning after St. Edward had registered an easy 14-1 rout of Walther Lutheran (5-20) in the regular season.
“We were all expecting to come out here and get a big ‘W’ right from the beginning,” Rolando said. “But we’ve played other teams like this before where we slaughtered them and then they gave us a tough game the next time. So we were kind of expecting both.”
In the third, Ana Peterson singled, Kali Kossakowski walked and Ashley Gradishar beat out a swinging bunt to load the bases. Then Tarah McShane broke the scoreless tie with an RBI single.
When Field’s liner was caught by second baseman Colleen Mullen but Kossakowski slide in face-first to avoid being doubled up on a disputed call the Green Wave offense had the door open for a big inning. It opened even wider when Kruckenburg bobbled Richmond’s slow tapper to the pitching circle for a run-scoring error. Then Rolando started the rout with a two-run single.
Maddie Kerr hit an RBI double, Julie Larson walked, Peterson singled and Kossakowski and McShane both hit two-run doubles. Finally, Field singled in another run.
The Green Wave (18-9) added a fourth-inning run when Kerr singled, moved up on a couple of walks and scored on a wild pitch.
McShane’s slide at the plate for the fourth run of the explosion typified the Green Wave effort. The ball arrived well ahead of her, but she slid in hard and dislodged it from the catcher’s mitt.
“We started out slow with the bats,” Corn said, looking ahead to Lisle (26-4), which beat Woodlands Academy 7-2 Wednesday.
“We’ve got to bring that right at the beginning.”
Kossakowski, McShane, Rolando, Kerr and Peterson each had two hits. The Green Wave knows the bats will be hard-pressed to duplicate this effort Saturday. Kossakowski recalled how Lisle pitcher Bekka Houda has had the Green Wave’s number.
“We haven’t scored a run on her in two straight postseasons,” she said.
Houda didn’t pitch against the Green Wave in the early season 8-3 victory Lisle had over St. Edward.
“They were smart,” Corn said. “They didn’t give us any extra looks there at her.”
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