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Sports
Adapting to varsity : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisAdapting to varsity
| Young Wolves' softball team plays best ball in late May
| by Kristin Sharp
| 6/7/2012
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In one of the most competitive softball seasons in the Southwest Prairie Conference, Oswego East just wanted to progress from start to finish.
Three conference teams appeared in regional finals and one - Plainfield Central - reached the Elite Eight and Monday's DeKalb Super-Sectional before falling, 5-4, to Moline.
In the end, Oswego East finished with an 11-26 overall record and a 3-11 mark in the SPC.
"One of the things that we continued to tell the girls is we wanted to progress toward the end and we wanted to be playing our best softball at the end," Oswego East assistant coach Patrick Molinari said. "We did that. We played West Aurora and won on a walk-off in the seventh and in the second game against Benet - one of the top teams in the state - we were beating them into the sixth inning, 5-4. You could see the girls were really taking everything they learned during the season and applying them to the last two games."
Oswego East's season opened with a 5-4 start through its March schedule before head coach Danielle Lee went on maternity leave after welcoming a baby boy, and the Wolves broke a four-game skid with a 2-0 win over DeKalb before dropping six of its next seven to fall to 8-15 on the season.
Oswego East earned a 9-8 win over Plainfield North in early May, but did not post another win in the regular season.
The Wolves started postseason play against West Aurora, and after defeating the Blackhawks 6-5 on senior Lindsey Anderson's walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh, Oswego East faced Benet for the second time this season.
"One thing we had a problem with this year is we'd have one too many mistakes in certain innings - not throughout the game - that put us in a bad position to be successful," Molinari said. "As the girls understood that each part of the game is important, you could see we started keeping games a lot closer and we started being a lot more competitive."
After falling to the Redwings 12-1 on April 23, the regional semifinal was much closer.
"No one likes to lose, but in that last game the girls really felt like we could beat that team," Molinari said. "It looked like we were going to beat that team. The problem is that when you have a young team and you're starting to grasp that concept, the pressure starts to mount and that's something we have to get better at - handling that pressure."
Benet lost a 1-0 game to Neuqua Valley in the regional final, and Neuqua Valley lost a 2-1 game to Plainfield Central in the sectional semifinal. The Wildcats defeated Naperville North in the sectional final before falling to Moline.
Although Plainfield Central swept Minooka in SPC play this year, the Indians won the conference with a 12-2 record while Plainfield Central and Plainfield South tied at 11-3 and Plainfield East finished fourth at 10-4.
"I would say this is the best year I've seen in the SPC as far as softball is concerned," Molinari said. "I don't think there was one dominate team like there usually is. With Plainfield East being as good as they were this year, Plainfield North is bringing their program back and Romeoville is getting better. Every team in our conference was going to be a competitive game. It wasn't that way in the past. In past years before the game would start, you'd know if you would win or lose."
Oswego East graduated four players from its lineup in Emilee Fiacchino, Lindsey Anderson, Brittany Russell and Danielle Shea. Russell was the team's second leading hitter, batting .386.
"They do the best they can, but I think it's hard for anyone at that age to understand the leadership role. As a senior, I think you start to grasp the concept, but these seniors were more lead by example," Molinari said. "A lot of the girls learned it was a lot different than summer or JV practices and the senior girls had a lot to do with it and being the spark plug. In the West Aurora game, Lindsey Anderson has been working for three years and finally had an opportunity to do what she's been working to do."
Junior Brittany Warnecke earned her second All-SPC honor after leading nearly every offensive statistic for the Wolves, batting .475 with 37 runs, 57 hits - including five home runs - and 37 RBIs.
Junior Molly Talaska (.328) had 38 hits and 22 RBIs while freshman Rachel VanderWagen (.247) drove in 20 runs this spring.
On the mound, sophomore Alex Wagner pitched more than 157 innings and finished with a 4.54 ERA while striking out 63 batters and earning nine wins.
"I think Alex had 159 innings and whether they were wins or losses, that's going to be beneficial for the next two years," Molinari said. "She's one of the girls who, as she continues to gain experience, she's going to learn to be successful. It really came full circle when she played Benet again. She didn't have her best stuff, but she's capable of moving the ball around and keeping the situation competitive.
"Rachel VanderWagen was third on our team in RBIs and she's only a freshman. (Sophomore) Gretchen Gaertner helped me call the games. As we moved through the season, ever girl matured in the game of softball. Those are good building blocks to move forward to next year. We don't have to retrace what we did; we can move forward. That's going to put us in position to be successful," Molinari added.
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