Ellison Hallahan homers twice to lift Sycamore past Kaneland

MAPLE PARK – Ellison Hallahan’s first home run gave Sycamore a first-inning cushion in a 16-1 win against Kaneland on Wednesday in an Interstate 8 battle.

Her second home run pushed the Spartans into run-rule territory in the win, helping Sycamore bounce back after a 3-1 loss to La Salle-Peru on Monday, a loss that likely cost the Spartans (21-3-1, 6-2) a shot at the I-8 title.

“I think we do a really good job of kind of leaving the games behind us,” Hallahan said. “We don’t really focus too much on that. Coach Carp [Jill Carpenter] is very adamant about the loss before. And either way, L-P was a very good game for both teams.”

Hallahan launched a three-run shot to left center in the first after Faith Heil had singled home Adi Armstrong, who started the rally with a double.

The Spartans added another solo run in the second, but Kaneland (17-11, 2-5) answered back with a homer by Addison Coulter to left to cut the lead to 5-1.

After Ema Durst drove home Heil in the fifth, Hallahan’s home run to left pushed the lead to 11-1.

“I think that’s a huge moment,” Hallahan said. “Not just because I hit the ball, but if anyone hit a home run like that in that situation. It just sparks a rally and makes everyone way more excited to finish the game and stuff.”

With two outs in the inning, the Spartans reached base eight straight times to tack on five more runs. Hallahan picked up her third hit of the game and sixth RBI with a single to left that scored Heil to cap the scoring.

Carpenter said it was a big bounce-back after the loss to the Cavs. Sycamore lost 10-6 earlier in the year to L-P, and its only other loss this season is 12-2 to Marengo.

“This is the hard part about our conference. It’s so good,” Carpenter said. “L-P pretty much has things locked up and we know we can see Kaneland later on.”

The Knights had five hits in the loss, snapping a three-game winning streak in which they averaged 12 runs per game.

Last time against Sycamore, the Knights struck out 17 times in a 3-0 loss. Coach Mike Kuefler said the team was in a little bit of an offensive slump before the three-game winning streak.

“We’ve started to put the bat on the ball a little bit,” Kuefler said. “Even today we were moving the ball better than the last time we faced the guys. ... We’re moving in that direction.”

Addison Dierschow allowed four hits in five innings, striking out three and walking none in the win. Heil and Durst each had three hits, while Addie McLaughlin, Armstrong and Kairi Lantz each had two of Sycamore’s 17 hits in the game. Heil scored four times while McLaughlin, Hallahan and Armstrong scored twice each.

Armstrong set the tone early defensively for the Spartans as well. Riley Cooper led off the bottom of the first with a grounder to Armstrong at short. She threw out the speedy leadoff hitter on a bang-bang play at first, then made an over-the-shoulder bucket catch on a pop-up behind second base to rob Angelina Campise of a hit.

“She’s done a nice job for us at short,” Carpenter said. “I wouldn’t call that her natural position. She’s a heck of a player and will play hard regardless of where you put her. ... She made a really nice catch on that ball [by Campise] in short centerfield. Then it was a nice slap by their leadoff to start the game. Adi had that internal clock going and she was able to throw her out at first.”