West Aurora softball team falls to West Chicago

Updated: April 26, 2011 9:48AM

West Chicago’s Mary Connally threw a three-hitter Monday in a 6-2 DuPage Valley Conference softball win over West Aurora, but the DePaul recruit wasn’t the story. Her batterymate, Rachael Venchus, was.

The junior backstop stroked a home run over the fence in left center field to lead off the second inning, added three more RBI on a pair of singles and a fielder’s choice groundout and threw out a runner trying to steal third base to help Connally thwart a brewing Blackhawk rally in the sixth.

“I didn’t think it was gonna go over (the fence),” Venchus said of the first home run she has ever hit in organized ball.

“I got scared going around first base because I thought it was gonna die (in the wind blowing in from center) and then it went over the fence and I thought, ‘All those years.’ After I rounded second I was pumping my fist, I was so happy.”

Connally, now 7-4 for the Wildcats (9-6 overall, 2-0 DVC), had a 3-0 lead when she was knicked for a run in the fourth on Franny Evischi’s RBI single between third and short. It plated Alyssa Reimers, who had reached on a bunt single.

West’s LaRi Mitchell drew a walk to open the sixth and Reimers reached on an outfield error before Venchus gunned down Mitchell. Losing pitcher Christina Hunger’s ground out then drove in a run and Jamie Avery followed with a single, but Connally slammed the door and retired four straight to close out the game.

“We got to the ball, made the adjustments later in the game and got some runners on,” said West Aurora coach Sarah Nagy, whose team falls to 4-10 overall and 0-3 in the league.

“But they outplayed us. They had eight hits to our four (or 10-3, depending on the scorekeeper).”

The game was played with a light mist occasionally falling but Nagy was just happy to avoid another rainout, since the Blackhawks have had nine games postponed.

“We’ll probably lose five, total,” she said.

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