Color them winners, in Lynch’s honor
Nine-year-old Ryan Weaver, the oldest of Dennis Lynch’s nine grandchildren, threw out the first pitch on Wednesday at Palatine.
It was a perfect strike to Pirates catcher Lauren Logan.
Visiting Fremd, which defeated host Palatine 8-0, and the other ten Mid-Suburban League softball teams then joined to strike out non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the cancer that Dennis Lynch battled for ten years before dying March 9.
“We had a great turnout and I told the girls ‘let’s fight the whole game like my father-in-law fought,’ ” said Palatine coach Jeff Manz, the son-in-law of Dennis, a longtime educator and coach at Rolling Meadows High School. “I think he would have been proud of both teams.
Ryan Weaver is the son of Fremd coach Jim Weaver.
“Ryan threw out the first pitch, that was so cool,” Manz said. “And so many nieces and nephews were here and grandchildren. We miss Dennis a lot.”
All the teams throughout the MSL wore green socks and held fundraisers for the cure.
“It was awesome to see everyone in the green,” said Schwantz, who is 12-2 after recording her fifth shutout with a 4-hitter and 10 strikeouts. “It was a really fun game for a great cause.”
“It was a great day,” said Jim Weaver, also a son-in-law to Dennis Lynch. “Hopefully we raised a lot of money across the MSL. I really appreciate all the schools getting involved. Hopefully, we collected a lot of money for cancer research. That means a lot to us.”
The Vikings (24-6, 11-3) scored 4 runs in the third inning on 2 errors, 1 walk, 1 hit by pitch and 1 hit, a perfectly-placed bunt by Kristie Salerno.
“We had a tough time with their small ball,” Manz said. “We made some bad decisions.
“Neither team hit the ball that great but their hits dropped in on us and a lot of time with two outs. We didn’t finish innings.”
Salerno, pinch runner Morgan Brauer, Mandi Matsumoto and Leigh Farina (2-for-4) all scored in the third.
Megan Hubbard’s sacrifice fly to center made it 3-0 and catcher Janelle Schneider was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 4-0.
Fremd added 3 runs with two outs in the sixth, thanks to Farina’s RBI double to right center and Michelle Mazur’s 2-run single to right-center.
After third baseman Kaileigh Moertl made a great dive and threw to first baseman Kayla Borgan for the first out of the seventh, Caitlin Patenaude singled to left.
She later came home on pinch-hitter Tracy Welninski’s two-out line drive base hit to right for the final run.
Logan (double to center), pitcher Megan Hedstrom (5 strikeouts), Grace Rohrwasser and Moertl had the hits for Palatine (14-17, 6-8).
With two outs in the top of the second and Hubbard (double) on the third base, Pirates center fielder Jamie Haze made a terrific catch over her left shoulder while on the run toward the left-center fence. It robbed Schneider of extra bases.
Palatine had the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh when Schwantz got the final batter on a groundout to shortstop Farina.
“I thought Ashlynne pitched great,” Weaver said. “We have a lot of respect for Palatine’s lineup. Except for one miscue early, I thought we played really good defense and we had some good at-bats.”