Minooka, Wildcats stymied by weather

Minooka's Lyndsay Doyle tries to tag out Plainfield Central's Casey Hiers during a two-out run-down in the fifth inning.
(Michael R. Schmidt/Herald News)

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With the wind howling toward the center-field fence like a scene from "The Wizard of Oz," Plainfield Central pitcher Brittany Adcox decided to send Minooka's batters down a stark, yellow brick road of consecutive strikeouts Tuesday.

Turning into the magical softball version of Greg Maddux, the Benedectine University-bound senior right-hander interchanged fastballs and curves with an occasional rise, fanning the side in each of the fourth and fifth innings for a sequence of eight straight strikeouts.

Wind? What wind?

"It just made me make sure that I was really focusing on where I was throwing the ball," Adcox said. "I knew that if I gave up too much and they were able to get a hold of it, it's going to go a little farther. I wanted to make sure I didn't give them anything too good to hit."

Through seven innings, Adcox accomplished that about as well as Judy Garland sang "Over the Rainbow." Adcox struck out 14 and allowed only four baserunners on two hits and a walk before lightning suspended the Southwest Prairie Conference matchup at a 0-0 tie.

While Adcox (14-1) worked wonders on the corners, acing 72 of 101 pitches for strikes, No. 3 Plainfield (23-2, 12-0) picked up a double from junior second baseman Taylor Tooley, singles by junior third baseman Kail Pasternak and senior outfielder Felicia Camacho and a walk from freshman outfielder Olivia Scott.

Super-speedy sophomore outfielder Lyndsay Doyle singled twice and stole a base for host Minooka (14-11-1, 8-4) -- the lone hits given up by Adcox. Junior outfielder Candice Creasman walked, sophomore catcher Andrea Carlson reached on an error and sophomore DH Kelsey McCarthy sacrificed.

Meanwhile, sophomore righty Kristi Lenz (5-2) kept Minooka in the mainstream by striking out three and scattering the 3 hits and a walk, the game being stopped with a 1-1 count on freshman outfielder Krista Fiorini in the top of the eighth. This after Adcox thundered through the seventh with 3 strikeouts.

Lightning? What lightning?

"She was in total command," Plainfield coach Anne Campbell said of Adcox. "I think defensively we were doing a good job, but we just need to get some offense going, generate some offense, in order to win this ballgame."

"I concentrated on hitting my corners and putting my pitches in a good spot," Adcox said. "They weren't hitting and we weren't hitting as much either, so I needed to concentrate on hitting the corners and not hand them any hits. I threw a lot of curves and moved the fastball in and out with a few riseballs."

However, Minooka rose to the forefront early, with Doyle grounding a one-out single up the middle in the bottom of the first, stealing second and gaining third on an Adcox wild pitch. Adcox, though, struck out the final two batters to squelch the Indians' best scoring threat.

Although Creasman led off the bottom of the second with a walk and took second on McCarthy's sacrifice, Adcox retired 13 in a row until Doyle sliced a two-out single down the third-base line. After an error in the seventh, Adcox completed a three-strikeout inning with back-to-back punchouts.

"Doyle has come through twice already with hits and she continues to be our sparkplug for the offense," Minooka coach Amy Saelens said. "We need someone else to follow her lead and get some runs across the board. We know that it's going to be a one-run ballgame and hopefully we can come out on top."

To top it off, Minooka stayed even with Plainfield due to Lenz. She stranded Pasternak's bloop single in the second, Camacho's liner to left in the third and Tooley's two-out double to the left-center fence in the sixth. She also escaped a jelly-like jam in the tell-tale fifth.

Runs? What runs?

"Kristi has done a phenomenal job of pitching," Saelens said. "She had an up-and-down game before this, so she bounced back wonderfully, and I was happy with the way she mixed up her pitches and was keeping their hitters off guard. I was real happy with her performance."

"We had the runners that we needed on, but we just couldn't bring them in," Tooley said. "We made a couple of baserunning errors that we shouldn't have and that made a big difference."

The difference between clinching a second straight SPC title outright and returning to Minooka for Wednesday's 4:30 resumption can be traced to the fifth. Scott led off with a walk, sophomore catcher Robyn Chearo popped a sacrifice bunt that was dropped and Fiorini followed with another sacrifice bunt.

But on Camacho's subsequent grounder, with runners at second and third, Plainfield became as bunched up as cars in rush-hour traffic. Minooka executed rundowns resulting in a double play that erased Scott and sophomore pinch-runner Casey Hiers and leaving Camacho.

"We've had a couple of opportunities," Campbell confirmed. "I think we're hitting OK, but we need to find some holes. We're hitting the ball, but we need to find some gaps, have some patience with our pitch selection and come out again tomorrow and see if we can get to her."

On an overcast, chilly, gusty afternoon, hitters from Plainfield and Minooka expected to get to Lenz and Adcox, respectively, as the conditions seemed conducive for a home-run derby instead of a pitcher's duel. Instead, Lenz landed 51-of-71 pitches for strikes and Adcox caused enough wind from bats to be a Trane air conditioner.

"Exactly," Saelens said. "Both teams have hitters who can knock it out of the ballpark, especially on such a windy day. That's what we were thinking, that there definitely was the possibility of a high-scoring game. Now, it's a good, tough, low-scoring game and we're looking forward to finishing it up."

Following her streak of eight straight strikeouts, Adcox coaxed senior shortstop Leah Roman, Minooka's leadoff hitter, into a flyout in the sixth. Doyle singled but was caught stealing. Roman and Doyle were the only Indians not to fan, even though Adcox stayed oblivious.

Strikeouts? What strikeouts?

"I know had the six from the other two innings, but I wasn't going to keep counting them in my mind," Adcox said. "I don't do that. I just want to come back out here with the same intensity, the same good defense, and hopefully our bats will be able to wake up and get some runs."

"Right now, Brittany is pitching really well," Campbell said. "We need to help her out."