Loyola's bats come alive vs. Trinity

Loyola’s Devin Miller delivers a pitch against Trinity.
(Scott Powers/For the Sun-Times)

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Loyola's players pleaded with coach Marty Jennings during Saturday’s GCAC Red championship that they needed music before every one of their games.

After seeing the No. 5 Ramblers explode for 13 hits and a 16-2 win over Trinity at Resurrection following a pregame concert, Jennings may just consider that.

"Music, it pumps us up," Loyola junior Teresa Aguilar said.

A 5-1 defeat to Trinity (21-7) in Loyola’s second game of the season also did the trick for the Ramblers (21-2), whose only other loss came to Buffalo Grove.

"They thought they were the team to beat," said Loyola junior Devin Miller, who was named the conference MVP before the game. "We thought we were. We wanted to show them who No. 1 was."

It actually was Trinity which came out with the first punch. In the top of the first, the Blazers’ Laura Eichenold jumped on the first pitch from Miller and knocked a two-run homer over the left-field fence.

"For a second, it was like, 'Uh-oh, this could be another 5-1 game,'" Jennings said.

The Ramblers proved in the bottom of the first that it wasn’t. Of course, it had to be Aguilar who had to provide the heroics.

After hitting a walk-off home run in the GCAC semifinal, Aguilar stepped up against Trinity and tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run homer over the field-fence fence. It was her eighth of the season.

The homer lifted the lid on Loyola’s offense. The Ramblers scored four runs in the first, four more in the second, five in the third and three in the fourth.

Aguilar led Loyola’s offense with a home run, three runs and four RBI. Jenny Edwards (3-for-4, three runs, three RBI), Caitlin Desmond (3-for-4, four RBI) and Maggie Mullen (two runs, two RBI) contributed.

Miller did not allow Trinity to score again. She allowed four hits and struck out 10 in five innings.

"I’m shocked," Jennings said. "I’m not shocked in the way we played, but that we really controlled the game."