Freshman pitcher Skylee Ferrante plays stopper, Jacobs rallies to beat Dundee-Crown

CARPENTERSVILLE – Jacobs needed someone to play stopper after sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs in the top of the fourth inning against Dundee-Crown.

The Golden Eagles had just tied the score at 7, and coach Jessica Turner turned to freshman right-handed pitcher Skylee Ferrante in the bottom half. Ferrante struck out the first batter she faced, the first strikeout from either team, and then retired the Chargers’ Nos. 3, 4 and 5 batters in order.

Ferrante continued to mystify D-C’s batters, throwing four perfect innings with nine strikeouts, and Jacobs rallied for a 9-7 win in Fox Valley Conference play Wednesday.

Jacobs senior center fielder Jianna Tanada, a four-year varsity player, remarked on how fast the innings flew by with Ferrante at her best.

“Her coming in really gave us a big confidence boost,” said Tanada, who went 2 for 5 with a triple, two runs scored and two RBIs. “We settled in basically. All of our pitchers have been doing really well this year. I think that’s been the biggest change from the past years. Having Skylee come in those last [four] innings was very huge.”

Ferrante is one of two freshmen pitchers on the Eagles (8-6, 1-3), along with a pair of sophomores. Turner hasn’t hesitated to call on any of her young arms. Wednesday was Ferrante’s turn to shine.

“She’s a freshman on paper, but she carries herself at times like a senior. She doesn’t let a lot get to her.”

—  Jessica Turner, Jacobs coach on freshman Skylee Ferrante

“It’s tough to be put in that spot,” Turner said of Ferrante, who threw 37 of 54 pitches for strikes and struck out multiple batters in every inning. “Being able to trust our offense and our defense I think is what made her most comfortable. She’s a freshman on paper, but she carries herself at times like a senior. She doesn’t let a lot get to her.”

Dundee-Crown coach Matt Goetz said his batters were coming back to the dugout after their at-bats against Ferrante and commenting on her spin and difficult rise ball.

“From the teams we’ve played so far, they haven’t seen a lot of that,” Goetz said of Ferrante’s spin. “They were getting a little different taste of it. You can say 1,000 times to lay off the high ones, but it’s hard to adjust.”

Ferrante said playing on varsity has been a blast so far.

“It’s a little more pressure than my travel team, but it’s a lot of fun,” Ferrante said. “We’re all really close.”

Jacobs trailed 7-1 after three innings before its six-run top of the fourth. In the fourth, the Eagles had four hits and took advantage of three errors. Olivia Fillipp (1 for 2, two runs, two RBIs), Tanada, Molly Hoch (2 for 4) and Emily Popilek each had an RBI-producing at-bat.

The Eagles took the lead for good in the fifth inning on an RBI triple from Tanada, driving in Fillipp, and an RBI base hit from sophomore shortstop Talia Di Silvio (4 for 5, double) to score Tanada.

Players in Jacobs’ dugout squeezed rubber chickens that squawked loudly to help start rallies.

Whatever works.

“I don’t really know,” Tanada said while holding a neon blue chicken with a gold chain. “JT [Coach Jessica Turner] gave them to us to help us cheer and make sure we’re all having fun. Sometimes, we can get really quiet, so then we use these to wake us up.”

Dundee-Crown was led offensively by senior shortstop Alyssa Gale, who went 2 for 4 with a triple, double and four RBIs. Abigail Hsu was 2 for 4 with two doubles and one RBI, while Emily Einhorn and Kerrigan Svec each drove in a run.

Goetz said the Chargers (4-7, 1-4), losers of five in a row, still are trying to figure things out defensively.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve had paths to the ball that probably could have been a single but turned out to be a double,” Goetz said. “We just have to keep working on that, just limiting our mistakes overall.”