Schrader, Plainfield S. get past Neuqua

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The Chicago Bulls won the NBA draft lottery Tuesday night, lucking into the right to land Derrick Rose. Staying plucky Wednesday afternoon, Plainfield South pitcher Alyssa Schrader wound up smelling like a rose by hitting the right-field jackpot.

After fouling off enough softballs to the opposite direction to fill a bushel in her first at-bat, then walking on a full count, Schrader commemorated her second trip to the plate with a double down the right-field line -- drilling an 0-1 offering deep into the corner to catapult the Cougars to a crucial 2-0 lead.

As in Rose: Imagine that.

"I try not to think too much when I'm in the batter's box," said Schrader, whose hit scooted the Southies to a 3-1 victory over the host Wildcats in the semifinals of the Class 4A Neuqua Valley Regional. "Yep, she was pretty much pitching it outside and I tried to take it out that way, and it ended up working out."

Forget about the Jane Fonda workout. Sixth-seeded Plainfield South (23-8) needed only the strength of a two-run third inning built on Schrader's swing to break away from No. 11 seed Neuqua Valley (18-13) and advance into Saturday's 10 a.m. championship game against third-seeded Downers Grove South.

Along with Schrader, Lewis University-bound senior catcher Mary Giancarlo and junior third baseman Melissa Reyes also singled and walked for the Cougars. Senior shortstop Krista Matsui, the NIU recruit, singled and scored. Junior DH Alexis Alvarez singled and junior outfielder Kendall Weber scored another run.

Although Neuqua nudged within 2-1 via a pair of singles off Schrader in the top of the fourth, South bought some insurance in the sixth. Weber led off and was hit by a pitch and Alvarez singled, with Weber scoring when Alvarez executed a designed rundown following a flyout by junior second baseman Gabby Liberatore.

As in Pete Rose: hustle.

"Yeah, you definitely need to have that because you get baserunners on and you never know when they might score," Plainfield South coach Tara Singler said. "We were trying to manufacture stuff all game and it wasn't working out, but you try to take advantage of things, and we do have a lot of speed and good quickness."

"Once you get the lead, you have to hold them and make sure they don't score any more," Matsui said. "I think we started off strong by scoring, and after they scored, we battled right back."

A senior right-hander headed to Carthage, Schrader (17-5) constantly battled to secure the victory. She struck out one and scattered two walks and five hits -- all of the hits coming in the first four innings. She produced 62-of-98 pitches for strikes and coaxed the Wildcats into an advantageous 13 groundouts, six gobbled up by Liberatore.

"It's a team effort for us," Schrader said. "Getting ahead in the game really helps being the pitcher, and I had confidence in my team playing well behind me."

"They were hitting the ball really well and this field is really bouncy," Matsui pointed out. "But we just made the plays that we could make, and Gabby made a few awesome plays at second base. We did what we needed to do."

The need for speed? Nah, the need for baserunners powered South in the third, beginning with Reyes' one-out, four-pitch walk. Matsui and senior outfielder Jackie Frey reached on back-to-back errors to load the bases, and Giancarlo's infield hit caromed off Frey's foot to reload the bases.

That, with two outs, brought up Schrader. The Cougars' cleanup batter scalded her two-bagger to right to plate Reyes and Matsui for the 2-0 lead. Even though Neuqua rallied in the next inning with pitcher Colleen Hohman's single and third baseman Katie Wido's two-out RBI single, the Southies were in better business for good.

As in a rose: pretty.

"Oh, clutch," Singler said of Schrader's trouble-creating double. "She was big, very clutch, with baserunners on, which is something that we've been missing lately. She had a great game on the mound and a great game at the plate, and getting those two runs early helped our confidence."

"Anything I could do for the team to help move the runners or get them, you know, that's what I wanted to do," Schrader said. "We had hits, we strung them together and we ended up scoring there."

From there, Schrader retired nine of the subsequent 11 Wildcat hitters, allowing two walks among a string of five groundouts and four infield flyouts or lineouts. The best included an exceptional catch by Reyes of a slap scorched toward the third-base line. After an error, Liberatore completed the top of the seventh on a final grounder.

"Yeah, it's probably the most exciting, clutch catch that I've made all year," Reyes said. "I definitely knew that my teammates had my back after the error because they always do. And as soon as we can come up with a lead, we're always able to keep it going, so being able to do that early was good for our confidence."

While Schrader's double captured the hearts of the vocal Cougar fans in attendance, Reyes' walk in the third put South in the position to pounce on Neuqua for a chance at Downers Grove South, which placed second and fourth in Class AA in the past two springs.

"Once a team gives us something like that, we just jump on it," Reyes said. "We do whatever we can do as a team to get the win."

Winning with hitting -- including Matsui's monstrous chopper up the middle to lead off the bottom of the first and Alvarez's line drive to right with one out in the sixth -- the Southies relied on Schrader to douse the Wildcats' hopes from the mound and deliver a resolved surge with her bat.

And on a sunny day that the Cougars stranded seven, Schrader's double proved to be key, with Matsui summing up the situation.

As in a rose garden: vast.

"That was a huge hit," Matsui said. "Schrader hit the snot out of the ball and that got us going."