New Trier slips past Lane

Updated: June 2, 2011 11:26AM

Brigit Ieuter followed up a shutout with a nerve-racking near no-hitter.

Behind the pitching and timely hitting of Ieuter, No. 1 seed and host New Trier edged out Lane 3-2 in the Class 4A sectional semifinals Wednesday.

“It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde game out there,” said New Trier coach John Cadwell. “[Ieuter] just dominated them through the first three innings and then we just played uncharacteristically loose.”

The junior pitcher began the game on fire as she struck out eight of the first nine batters she faced.

The Trevians’ bats did not do much better through the first three innings and recorded just one hit.

After having no luck in the first three innings from the plate, the Indians decided to switch up the strategy and started bunting to overcome Ieuter and it worked.

“We really had to stay strong on defense and fielding the bunts properly,” said Ieuter. “I guess it wasn’t that surprising, but we haven’t really seen that many teams go through the lineup and keep bunting. For the most part, we had a couple errors, but our fielders stayed tough.”

Lane scored in the fourth inning when leadoff hitter Kaleigh Ambrose came home on a sacrifice bunt by Hailey Pieruccini.

New Trier (21-11) countered in the bottom half of the fourth with two runs on a Morrison bloop single and a Mimi Morris bunt single.

Although Lane (23-14) got some of its batters on base during the course of the game with five walks and three Trevian errors, Ieuter entered the final inning with a no-hitter intact.

In the top half of the seventh, the Indians finally found the hit column and evened the score after an Ambrose groundball snuck under the glove of Eileen Hurley.

With the score knotted at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on second, Ieuter drove a ball over the right fielder’s head for the game-winning hit.

The Trevians starting pitcher fanned 15 batters and allowed two hits and five walks en route to the win.

“I was just getting ahead on the batters with working on spots,” Ieuter said. “I think Molly (Morrison) did a good job calling the game, but I was trying to stay in command on the mound.”

Ambrose, Lane’s starter, allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out one.

Morris finished the game 2-for-3 with two bunts for hits, an RBI, a stolen base and was the game’s final run.

The Trevians will square off the winner of the Glenbrook North-Glenbrook South semifinal Saturday at 11 a.m.

“I think we’re going to need to come out strong in the first inning,” said Ieuter. “We need to keep our focus, stay tough the whole game and not let up on any pitch or any out or any inning.”

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