Softball: Woodstock North keeps KRC title hopes alive with win over Richmond-Burton

RICHMOND – Woodstock North was held hitless for the first four innings Thursday before sophomore left fielder Allyson Schaid stepped into the batter’s box for her second at-bat against Richmond-Burton junior Hailey Holtz, an Iowa State commit.

North already had scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first, but the Rockets climbed even with solo home runs from Holtz in the third and Rebecca Lanz in the fourth.

Schaid, who struck out swinging in her first at-bat, laid down a bunt to start the fifth and beat the throw for her team’s first hit. That started a stretch of six straight batters reaching base for the Thunder, who chased Holtz from the game and went on to score six runs on six hits in the inning.

The Thunder tacked on four more runs in the sixth, getting three extra-base hits, and cruised to a 12-2 win in six innings in their Kishwaukee River Conference game.

With the win, North (16-8, 10-2 KRC) kept its conference title chances alive. Marengo (19-6, 9-1) suffered its first conference loss of the season Thursday to Harvard 3-2. North has two games remaining, and Marengo still has four.

Schaid, North’s No. 9 hitter, was happy to be the one to get things going in the fifth. After her bunt single, she stole second base and came around to score on an RBI single by Aly Jordan.

“The bunt, I was questionable with doing it, but I was thinking my first at-bat didn’t go so well,” Schaid said. “I got the bunt down almost exactly where I wanted it. Then my coach gave the steal sign, and that was it. Then we went off.”

Woodstock North swept the season series against R-B and now has won the teams’ past three meetings going back to last year. In this year’s first matchup, the Thunder scored all four of their runs in the last inning to earn a 4-3 win.

“They don’t give up,” Thunder first-year coach Amy Nero said. “We play too many innings sometimes. We have play eight, nine, 10 innings sometimes, but they never give up. They keep playing hard and keep pushing themselves. We’ve had our ups and downs this season, but they come out with the ‘W’ when it matters.”

After going hitless in the first four innings, North had 10 hits in the final two. Jordan, Addison Salazar, Krista Herrmann and Makayla Nordahl each had RBIs in the fifth, and Salazar, Herrmann and Jo Jo Vermett added RBIs in the sixth.

Herrmann and Nordahl each finished 2 for 4 with a double and three RBIs, Vermett had a double and two RBIs, and Caylin Stevens posted a triple and three runs scored. Vermett, Jordan and Salazar added two runs apiece.

Herrmann said wins like Thursday’s can go a long way in helping build confidence. North already has more wins than last year.

“We’ve been pretty happy with our performance,” said Herrmann, a junior shortstop. “I think we definitely have improved a lot since last year. We’ve had a lot of freshmen that came up this year, but we knew what to expect. We all helped created a strong bond and we’ve developed together.”

Georgia Sedlack and Vermett, both seniors, combined to hold R-B (19-7, 8-4) to three hits. Sedlack had five strikeouts in the first three innings, and Vermett fired seven in the last three.

Holtz took the loss for R-B, allowing five runs (three earned) on two hits in four-plus innings. She struck out eight and walked four before being relieved by Madison Kunzer with no outs in the fourth.

R-B coach Tylar Stanton felt his team failed to execute routine plays at times. The Rockets committed three errors.

“Small ball has kind of gotten us a few times,” Stanton said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a weakness of ours, but teams typically aren’t hitting our pitchers very hard. ... We were kind of playing catch-up from the beginning, and momentum kind of shifted there [in the fourth]. Walks and errors, that’s kind of been the downfall for us in our losses. We’re giving teams too many outs, the routine plays we’re finding struggles with, and we’re not making the tough ones when we have to.”