Unless you live in certain Chicago precincts, you are not supposed to vote more than once. However, Plainfield Central’s Morgan Vogt cast the winning ballot with her left-handed bat again and again and again on Friday.
Actually, make that five agains against Plainfield South. After Southern Illinois Edwardsville-bound senior shortstop Taylor Tooley tripled home the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning, Vogt followed with her fifth hit — grounding an RBI single to center to give the Wildcats space.
Ah, remember Yogi Berra?
It’s ain’t over ’till it’s over.
“Yeah, I needed to keep it going so we stayed strong,” Vogt said. “We had to keep the runs coming. Sometimes, you’re never safe. You have to be strong in the field, strong at the plate, because you don’t know if somebody is going to get that really big hit.”
On a partially sunny, partially cloudy and fully cold afternoon, the really big hits belonged to Vogt. The freshman changed from starting pitcher to outfielder and still finished 5-for-5 with a triple, a run scored and three RBI to steer the host Wildcats to a roller-coaster 11-10 Southwest Prairie Conference softball win.
There were hits galore, 27 in all. Tooley, junior first baseman Morgan Krisch, senior second baseman Kali Pasternak and sophomore outfielder Carly Trenhaile ignited league-leading Plainfield Central (12-3, 8-0) with two hits apiece. The Wildcats landed 15 hits and Tooley scored three times.
In the aftermath of a leadoff-hitting Tooley, Krisch doubled, scored twice and notched two RBI. Pasternak tripled with two RBI. Trenhaile added a run, while sophomore outfielder Olivia Scott singled, walked and scored and sophomore DH Krista Fiorini singled and scored a pair of runs.
Exercising her right to hit lefty like Vogt, junior outfielder Olivia Bell led Plainfield South (6-14, 4-4) at 3-for-4 with three runs and a walk. Senior shortstop Melissa Reyes doubled and singled with an RBI and sophomore third baseman Megan Kubesh singled, walked twice and scored twice.
Whew. But wait a minute, senior first baseman Kelsey Hackworth whacked a three-run triple and scored, plus junior catcher Lauren Marusarz, senior outfielder/reliever Gaby Liberatore and junior second baseman Paige Stankus each singled, drove in a run and scored. An RBI double by junior pitcher Selena Calvillo and Stankus’ single chased Vogt in the first inning.
Ah, another dose of Yogi Berra.
It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.
“Absolutely,” Plainfield Central coach Anne Campbell said. “That’s why I was very proud of Morgan. It’s the first big game she’s pitched as a freshman and she was a little nervous. After she came out, she bounced back tremendously and showed she’s a heckuva ballplayer.”
“We’re learning not to quit,” Tooley said. “We don’t give up. Even though we’re down, we know we can always come back with our hitting. Morgan has been stepping up a lot as a freshman and she knows now what it takes to be on the varsity.”
It took an accountant to keep up with the scoring. Because the SPC game was originally scheduled to be played at South, Central started the soiree off as Vogt blooped a single over third and Krisch walked, both scoring on wild pitches for a 2-0 lead.
The Southies recovered in the bottom of the first as Kubesh walked, Bell muscled a single to shallow center and Marusarz singled to left. Hackworth cleared the bases with a triple to deep center, Liberatore fisted an RBI single on the third-base line and Calvillo cranked an RBI double to right for a 5-2 advantage.
“It’s an adrenaline rush when you get that type of lead,” said Bell, who has verbally committed to Loyola. “Normally, we’ve struggled with our hitting, but we came out and put runs on the board. It was good.”
“I was waiting to get my big hit,” Hackworth said. “It finally happened, and it happened at the right time. I do it for the team, it helped us, and it was a great feeling to finally come through. We fought right back and it was exciting — so back and forth.”
That seesaw swayed to Central’s side in the top of the second for a 5-5 tie. Trenhaile led off with a single and scored on Scott’s RBI looper to center. Fiorini slapped a single to short and scored on Krisch’s scorched double to center. It also plated Tooley, who reached on a fielder’s choice.
Deja vu all over again, indeed, Mr. Berra. Because in the bottom half, Kubesh, Bell and senior outfielder Kendall Weber walked to load the bases. Kubesh and Bell scored on an error and Weber sprinted across the plate on a wild pitch for an 8-5 lead.
Pick an adjective, any adjective.
“We never knew if we were going to score enough runs,” Plainfield South coach Tara Singler said. “Every inning it was, ‘OK, more runs, more runs. Get hungry, get hungry.’ It was the more runs, the better, because you never know when a team like that can come back on you.”
Therefore, in the fourth, Central rallied within 8-7 on Krisch’s single up the middle, a fielder’s choice by senior third baseman Nancy Carrington and Pasternak’s two-run triple. But Bell grounded a single up the middle to begin the bottom half and scored on Marusarz’s groundout for a 9-7 edge.
“No lead was safe,” Bell said. “It’s never safe, though, in a game that intense. We never thought we had it, we knew it wasn’t over until it was over, until that last inning. You have to get on base, you have to score runs, and there’s no looking back.”
With junior reliever Cara DeLange (8-2, six strikeouts) back on track for the Wildcats, Scott walked and Tooley bounced a sharp single to center in the fifth. Vogt’s two-run triple over the center fielder’s head forced a 9-9 deadlock. Reyes’ RBI double in the seventh sliced the finale to 11-10.
“We matched them swing for swing, at-bat for at-bat,” Singler said. “It was a great played ballgame, heart and soul, and the girls left everything they had out on the field.”
What Central needed to field the win came in the top of the seventh. Tooley launched an RBI triple into the right-center gap, with Weber nearly making an unbelievable catch. Next, Vogt changed the momentum like an election-day swing with a robust RBI single to center.
Pick a poison, any poison.
“They’re going to cause me to have a heart attack,” Campbell said, smiling. “Defensively, we didn’t play great. They had a great hitting game and we have to sharpen things up, but we didn’t quit and the girls hit and hit and hit. I’m happy for them.”
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