Lady Toppers impressive at Western Kenosha County Invite
By Bud Milroy
Sports Correspondent
The Lady Toppers jammed a week’s worth of softball in a single day on Saturday.
After crazy weather during the week washed out their conference games, the Lady Toppers went up against several of the state’s best teams in the Western Kenosha County Invite at Wilmot and Westosha Central on Saturday.
“I’m not sure coming here was one of my best ideas,” said Catholic Central Head Coach Bill Greskiw. “This is one of the top-notch tournaments in the state with four Division 1 teams in it that are ranked in the top 10 in the state. It was an excellent opportunity to see some really good teams and see how we held up against them.”
In their opener, the Lady Toppers suffered their first loss of the young season to Wilmot.
The Panthers scored a pair of runs in each of the second, third and fourth innings en route to the 6-2 victory.
Catholic Central scored their runs in the in the fourth inning when Taylor Rieck singled to center with one out. Natalie Rach drew a walked and both came in to score on Sara Hackbarth’s double to center field.
“We played pretty well against Wilmot. With Mackenzie (Kyle) on the mound, she can keep us in most games,” said Greskiw.
Kyle took the loss, allowing six runs on nine hits while striking out one and walking two.
In its second game of the day, Catholic Central squared up with the state’s number two-ranked team from Menomonee Falls.
“We had a tough time adjusting to their pitcher. Her pitches would range from 57 miles per hour to 50 miles per hour,” said Greskiw. “We couldn’t adjust the entire game.”
In the 6-1 loss, the Lady Toppers scored their lone run in the fifth inning. A two-base throwing error put Samantha Weiler on second base. One out later, Olivia Sobbe drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Bridgette Wright then laid done a bunt that scored Weiler.
In their night cap, a 5-3 loss, the Lady Toppers saw the fastest pitcher of the tournament, someone Greskiw described as “a big, tall girl who could really bring it” from Zion-Benton, a school that plays in the North Suburban Conference in Illinois.
The Lady Toppers scored first in the contest. Freshman Maddie Vos led off the third inning with a single and scored on classmate Hailey Weis’ line-drive double to right.
The Z-Bs responded with a run in the bottom of the inning, another in the fifth and sealed it with three in the sixth.
The Lady Toppers battled back in the top of the seventh. Wright and Kyle opened the inning with singles to right-center. Reich’s grounder to first was mishandled to load the bases. Walks to Rach and Vos sandwiched a strikeout and produced two runs to make the score 5-3 with the tying runs on base.
However, the next two batters were retired to end the rally and the game.
“Although we were showing some wear and tear from a long day, we really battled Zion-Benton,” Greskiw. “Earlier in the day Z-B lost to Westosha 9-5. That was the first time all season Westosha hadn’t 10-runned their opponent. So it was a good effort against a quality opponent. We really focused during the rally.”
Catholic Central (2-3 overall, 2-0 MCC) will return to Metro Classic Conference action when it hosts Racine Lutheran at Congress Field on Tuesday and travels to Whitefish Bay Dominican on Thursday.
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