Softball: Walker, Glenbard West knock off West Chicago
After back-to-back perfect bunts by West Chicago that Glenbard West really couldn't do anything about, Hilltoppers pitcher Haley Walker knew it was time for her to do all that she could to wiggle out of the fifth-inning jam.
Protecting a 7-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth in West Chicago, Walker and her teammates could do little more than watch as the Wildcats' first two batters in the inning - Ariana Elizondo and Aimee Cejna - put down identical, perfectly placed bunts to the right side of the infield to create a threat with two on, none out, and the heart of the order due up.
But Walker managed to work her way out of the jam and pick up the complete-game win. Glenbard West took the opening game of Saturday's nonconference doubleheader 8-5.
After the two infield hits Walker got the next batter to hit a liner to third baseman Lexi Gregule and followed that with a strikeout. West Chicago's Christina Trigueros then lined a hard grounder up the middle that hit and hurt Walker, but the senior pitcher regained her composure and threw the runner out at first to end the threat.
"They put those (bunts) in the same spot, and then they had their 4-5-6 hitters coming up and that really clicked in my head," said Walker, who finished with seven strikeouts. "I started thinking, OK, I'm going to need to throw more away because they're great 4-5-6 hitters and so they won't make (great) contact."
After recording the first two big outs Walker knocked down Trigueros' smash as the ball hit her stomach as well as her right forearm.
"It scared me a little, but I was still able to throw her out. It was more fear than anything," she said. "It was good to get out of that … to be honest we have been playing close to teams, we've just had some off innings but we try to fight back to do the best we can."
On Saturday it was the Wildcats (4-10) who were done in by an off inning. The visitors scored five times in the fourth with just one hit to turn a 3-2 West Chicago lead into a 7-3 advantage for Glenbard West (3-5). New leadoff hitter Jessica Bongiorno delivered a big 2-run single in the outburst, but the Hilltoppers also walked four times and took advantage of three Wildcats errors to turn the game around.
"The pitching was not great that one inning and then we did not play any defense behind her," Wildcats coach Sean Gimbert said. "We had a really hard time playing defense the entire game and we had a bunch of errors. We've just got to be better playing defense.
"It's too bad that you play seven innings. It's kind of been the story all year. We have these bad innings and it's hard to recover against good teams."
Gregule added to the lead with a sixth-inning home run, her first this spring. It provided a little more breathing room and less stress later on as the Wildcats pushed across a pair of runs in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate.
"I was actually very happy with the way we played," Gregule said. "I thought we were comfortable out there no matter what the score was. We never really gave up our fight. I feel like this warm weather is helping us come together a little bit better. We're not focused on the cold, and so we can focus on meshing and winning."
The Wildcats were led by starting pitcher Isabella Zentner, who was 3-for-4 including an RBI single in the seventh. Like Zentner, Emily Murphy also had a two-out, run-scoring hit in the seventh and also pitched in Saturday's opener.