Softball: Nearly perfect Waslawski no-hits Waubonsie Valley
One strike away from a perfect day, St. Charles North senior Jillian Waslawski settled for an impressive consolation prize.
Waslawski fired a no-hitter in the North Stars' 4-0 win over Waubonsie Valley on Thursday, striking out seven. She retired the first 20 batters and had an 0-2 count on Michele Calabrese who grounded to short with two outs in the seventh.
Unfortunately for the North Stars, they made their only mistake of the day, bobbling the grounder. Waslawksi then retired her counterpart Emily Olson on a comebacker to complete the no-hitter.
"I felt really comfortable on the mound," Waslawski said. "I just felt really good. I had trust in my team behind me. Grace (Quinn) did a great job catching the game. Overall it was a great day."
Freshman Ellie Laub might have come closest to getting a hit for the Warriors when she lined out to Taylor Baumgartner in right field in the fourth inning.
Laub came up again in the seventh and worked a 3-0 count before Waslawski battled back to retire her on a nice running catch in left field by Sydney Eby.
"She had a lot of moving stuff and we couldn't figure out what she was throwing us but that's what good pitchers do," Waubonsie Valley coach Val Wood said. "They keep the offense off-balance. And they have a really good defense. Kudos to her, that's a huge accomplishment to throw a 7-inning no-hitter."
St. Charles North (3-1), who got its season started last week beating Fremd and New Trier and losing to Oak Park-River Forest, took a 1-0 lead in the third. Waslawski helped herself by lining a two-out double to left field to score Alyssa Eby.
The only other offense came in the fifth. Sydney Eby and Alyssa Eby both singled, then executed a double steal.
Ashlyn Jozefowicz plated a run with a sacrifice fly, Waslawksi brought in another with a ground ball to short, and Olivia Oborne capped the scoring with a line RBI single to right.
"The team is just coming together," Waslawski said. "There's so many different pieces we have and we're so versatile that I think a long run in tournament season is going to be very achievable."
The North Stars definitely had the experience edge on Waubonsie Valley (0-3), starting four seniors and three juniors to the Warriors' two freshmen and three sophomores.
Most of the Warriors' highlights came on defense including catcher Emma Maier throwing out a base stealer and second baseman Emily Pavuk diving to take a run-scoring hit away from Quinn.
"We've been working so hard on our defense," Wood said. "That's what's going to keep us in ballgames against these good teams. They have been exceeding my expectations. And Emily Olson pithed a really good game today."
Waslawski also led the North Stars at the plate going 2-for-3 with 2 RBI.
"She was great," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "Everywhere we asked her to put the ball she put it there. She's just on point. She's detailed and she's focused and she knows what she needs to do. She's a senior that has been the No. 1 pitcher in this program since she was a freshman. You just run her out there and let her do her thing. She's a winner and she's going to keep us in every game."
The North Stars, who are taking spring break off, like where they are at getting in four early games. Contrast that to last season when they didn't play their first game until April 7.
"I think as we get rolling and start playing more often and start figuring out our big-game lineup, as we figure that out in the next 10 games we'll know more about ourselves," Poulin said. "But we have plenty to work with. We're looking forward to it."