Joliet West starts fast, dominates Joliet Central

JOLIET – It hasn’t been the greatest of times for Joliet West to start the season.

But after an 0-8 start, the Tigers (2-8, 1-0) have won back-to-back games with the win Tuesday, opening up Southwest Prairie Conference play with a 19-1 victory over Joliet Central in three innings.

Junior Ella Featherston was one of many Tigers to have a big day at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a grand slam, a double and three runs scored. Her grand slam was an inside-the-parker, as she drove a 3-2 pitch into left-center field, the deepest part of the field at Central, and circled the bases, chasing home Mallory Crisafulli, Caitlyn Jadron and Hope Hughes ahead of her. It was Featherston’s second at-bat of a 13-run first inning.

“The bases were loaded, and I didn’t want to walk,” Featherston said. “I got a good pitch to hit and I had to go for it. I had no idea where the ball was when I was running the bases. I just watched my coach and she waved me around.

“This was a good win for us. It was the first game in conference, so to start with a win is big. This should help our confidence. We know we can hit, and we showed it today.”

The Tigers collected 14 hits and took advantage of a few Central fielding errors. Besides Featherston, other top hitters were Jadron (3 for 3, RBI, four runs), Alaina Grohar (double, two runs), winning pitcher Gabi Juarez (2 for 3, three RBIs), Olivia Horn (2 for 4) and Jessica Cole (2 for 3).

Juarez allowed only one hit in three innings and struck out six. The Steelmen scored in the bottom of the second when Victoria Godinez led off by getting hit by a pitch and then moved around the bases on wild pitches.

“We knew coming into the season that we have a young team and it would take some time to come together,” West coach Heather Suca said. “The thing I have been most proud of during this tough start has been that the girls’ energy has been up. They come out ready to play. That’s what we want. We want to be loose and have fun but also pay attention and be ready to play, and they have been doing that.

“They have kept their heads and spirits up. We are young and we are still moving people around to find the right position for everyone, but having our spirits up is a big key. Hopefully we can keep getting better as the rest of the season goes on.”

For the Steelmen (4-7, 0-1), Haydn Voss had the lone hit. After the first inning, they also shored up the defense and made several plays in the field.

“We definitely fielded better after the first inning,” Central coach Jon Rashid said. “[Pitcher] Cam [Salazar] threw strikes, and we have to be ready for a good hitting team like West to put the ball in play. There were a couple of plays early in that first inning that we could have made, but we didn’t and it snowballed.

“We have a good group of girls this year. They all enjoy each other and even though we were losing by quite a bit, they were all still in the dugout encouraging each other. They all have each other’s backs. We need to come ready to play from the start, though.”