Softball: Sheehan, Fremd slam Rolling Meadows

It's not the postseason yet but Fremd has already earned a Sweet Sixteen victory.

Coach Josh Teschner sent 16 different batters to the plate, the most in his successful seven-year career (114-88) as the Vikings coach, and his club produced 10 hits in a 14-2 five-inning Mid-Suburban League crossover win over visiting Rolling Meadows.

Two of those hits belonged to junior first baseman Leah Sheehan, who won't soon forget her first at-bat in the wire-to-wire win for Fremd (6-3, 2-0).

She smacked her first high school grand slam over the right-center field fence to give the hosts a 7-0 lead in the first inning.

"I wasn't watching the ball and I heard my teammates cheering very loudly for me as I was running," said Sheehan, who went on to produce her first multi extra-base game when she doubled in the third inning for her game-high fifth RBI. "That's how I knew it was going over the fence.

"It felt good. But I just went up there thinking I wanted to hit and pass the bat to my teammates so we could string together some hits and score runs at that point. This was a very good team win and everyone contributed."

That's for sure, as Teschner also got hits from Avery Sadorf (2-for-2, home run, 3 RBI)), Mia Souliotis (1-for-3, double), Chiara D'Antonio (1-for-2, RBI), Lauren Graham (1-for-2, double, RBI), Madison Minton (1-for-2, RBI), Eva Dernis (1-for-1, home run) and winning pitcher Hailey Lucas (1-for-2, RBI).

Taylor Piento (1 run), Anna Poss (1 run) and Sydney Sheedy were others in the starting lineup while also stepping into the batter's box as pinch hitters were the Kanupke sisters (sophomore Claire and freshman Molly), Ryanne Goodwin, Josie Weber and Amanda Pontecki,

"You go into every game hoping every kid can be a piece of what you do," Teschner said. "And not only did every kid get an at-bat, every single kid had either a hit, a defensive play or scored a run for us and that was the goal. We respect Rolling Meadows. They are a gritty, hardworking team and when we play them we want to make sure we respect that, and we tell the kids you've got to play hard and earn every opportunity you get against a good team.

"The best part of (all 16 batting) was that when I told the starters that a particular girl was hitting for them, the first thing every single starter did was go right to that kid and pumped them up. It was awesome."

Lucas (3-1) has been pretty awesome on the mound in her sophomore season, giving up just 4 earned runs in 30 innings. The right-hander has an ERA of 0.90 after Wednesday's 1-hitter.

Weber, a junior, made her varsity mound debut by retiring the side in order in the bottom of the fourth.

"Josie had a pretty significant knee injury as a sophomore so she is still getting back to her form from her freshman year," Teschner said.

Rolling Meadows' highlight came in the bottom of the fourth when junior first baseman Sophia Cobos belted a 2-run homer after sophomore Ashlyn Ferguson drew a one-out walk. It was Cobos' second career homer and first of the season.

"We didn't have our best day," said Rolling Meadows coach Tony Wolanski, who is tied with Greg Benes as the winningest coach in program history (245 wins). "Fremd played really well. It's a great program. But Cobos hit that 2-run homer and we just kept battling. That's what we try to do. Cobos (who also made a nice scoop at first for a Fremd groundout in the second inning) got hurt last season and missed about 80 percent of her sophomore season with a knee injury."

Sophomore Kelly McQueen has the other homer this spring for the Mustangs (2-3 0-2).