SYCAMORE – Jill Carpenter said she doesn’t expect perfection out of her Sycamore softball team.
So when the Spartans made back-to-back errors in the sixth inning that let Yorkville pad its lead to two runs, Carpenter said she was pleased of the way the Spartans responded.
The defense stepped up to escape the jam, then the offense came to life in the final two innings of a 3-2 win Thursday.
“You’d like to be perfect and we strive for perfection, but that’s just not how this game usually works,” Carpenter said. “It’s a rarity to see us kind of make mistakes, especially back-to-back ones. The fact we were able to withstand that little storm says a lot about our team.”
The Spartans (12-5 overall, 5-1 Northern Illinois Big 12 East) trailed, 2-1, heading into the bottom of the seventh. Allison Polly led things off with a walk, then Anna Criswell singled, moving Polly to third. With one out, Haley Trela launched a bomb to center for a double, scoring Polly and moving Criswell to third.
Amanda Swedberg followed with a flyout to left, allowing Criswell to tag up for the winning well.
“I had faith in us,” Trela said. “I knew Anna was up and she was due. I knew she was going to get a hit. I knew we’d do a good lob.”
The Foxes (8-11, 3-4) got a home run from Danielle Evans in the fourth inning for a 1-0 lead, then tacked on another in the sixth. Erin Simmons and Trela made back-to-back errors after a leadoff walk to put runners on second and third with no outs, but Faith Reynolds struck out Anna Jolee VanGundy and catcher Mia Richards picked Kara Aloisio off third for the strike-them-out, throw-them-out double play.
“The fact we got out of that and only give up [one run] in that situation says a lot about our group,” Carpenter said. “We really stepped up and made some nice plays. ... Mia Richards whipped the ball down to third an we got the girl out on that play. We didn’t worry about it and moved on real quick.”
The Spartans got one back in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice bunt by Richards that scored Swedberg, who reached on an infield single.
“I think we really came together and buckled down,” Trela said. “I think that’s what makes games like this very fun, when we come back to win.”
Yorkvile coach Jory Regnier said the Foxes were confident heading into the bottom of the seventh. Even with the run in the sixth, Sycamore only managed four hits in the game to that point off starter Lauren Howard.
“We were facing the bottom of their lineup, and we were in a good place defensively,” Regnier said. “Lauren pitched a good game so far, and she didn’t pitch bad in the seventh either. They just got timely hits.”
By the numbers: Reynolds allowed eight hits in the win, but only one in the last three innings. She struck out four in the win and walked one. Howard allowed six hits and struck out seven in the loss. Trela was 2 for 3 with an RBI in the win. Teaghen Amwoza had two hits for the Foxes.
Beyond the stats: Yorkville had
two hits in the first and third innings but stranded the runners both times. After Baldwin’s homer to leadoff the fourth, the Foxes got two more hits but stranded both runners again.
They said it: “I think defensively we played very well, we’ve been playing very consistently on defense lately,” Regnier said as the Foxes didn’t commit an error in the loss. “We just didn’t push the runs across when they were there to push across. It was something we’ve been dealing with all season.”
Up next: The Spartans are at Rochelle at 4:30 p.m. Friday, while the Foxes are at Streator at 11 a.m. Saturday.