Softball: Surprise storm suspends Kaneland vs. La Salle-Peru in bottom of 4th

PERU – Kaneland took an early lead against La Salle-Peru, and just as the Cavaliers’ bats looked to be coming around with two on and no outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Mother Nature had other ideas.

Lightning lit up the sky before rain and hail suspended the action with the Knights leading, 1-0. A potential resumption of the Interstate Eight Conference softball game has not been determined as of this writing.

While the surprise storm put a damper on the game, there was plenty of excitement through four innings.

In the top of the first, the Knights’ Kailey Plank started off being hit by a Evin Becker pitch. Emily Olp walked before Abby Latka loaded the bases with one out after also being hit by a pitch.

But Becker settled down quickly and struck out Isabella Stombres, then got Jenna Harper to pop out to end the inning with no runs crossing the plate.

But in the top of the second the Knights would get a run across. Lexi Workman picked up a leadoff single, and two batters later Morgan Iwanski singled to right field on a 3-2 pitch to score Workman and give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

The Cavs were able to limit the damage and keep the scoring to a minimum, and in the top of the fourth the Knights had a couple of great scoring chances if not for the Cavaliers defense.

Workman led off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Corrine Pugh. Iwanski then singled to right, and it looked like the Knights would make it 2-0, but Addison Duttlinger fired to Callie Mertes at second who turned and fired to Paige Kirkman at home for the out.

Moments later a Becker pitch was in the dirt, and Kirkman threw to Maddy Pangrcic at third for the final out of the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Cavs started rolling. Taylor Martyn beat a throw to first for the first L-P hit of the game. Kirkman then followed that with a single to center, but as Pangrcic was sitting with a 2-0 count, the first of the lightning struck. After almost an hour and two stints of hail, the game was suspended with no makeup date announced.