Plainfield North dismantles Joliet Central, positions itself well in conference

JOLIET – This season hasn’t gone the way either the Plainfield North or Joliet Central softball teams were hoping. Entering their contest Wednesday, Plainfield North had lost twice as many games as it had won, while the Steelmen had just five victories.

Everyone makes the playoffs, however, and Plainfield North may have just positioned itself a heck of a lot better for it.

The Tigers scored seven runs in the first inning as they rolled to a 17-1 Southwest Prairie Conference victory in five innings at Joliet Central.

Plainfield North (8-14, 5-5 SPC) is back at .500 in conference play. At press time, the Tigers remained in eighth place in the Southwest Prairie Conference. However, the win moved them just half a game out of sixth and a game and a half out of fifth, certainly a better spot than they were in entering the day.

“It was good to get everyone involved and moving out on the field,” coach Julie Ann Czerniakowski said. “It was a good day for us. ... It’s one step. We just need to keep building on it every single day. We’re trying to focus on the little things every single day and just get better and better.”

It was Plainfield North’s fourth win in five games, its lone loss coming by a score of 5-4 against second-place Plainfield East.

The Tigers didn’t have a particularly tough day. They followed up the seven-run first inning with four in the second. Another three runs came in the third, and the final three runs came in the fifth when the game wrapped up.

Makayla Condon and Sophia Feminis each had two hits for the Tigers, who finished with 12 hits. One of Condon’s hits was a solo home run in the third inning, while Addison Conrad had an RBI triple in the first.

“I think everyone just fed off of each other’s energy,” Condon said. “We were just hitting the ball really well and seeing the ball well. This was a big confidence boost. We haven’t won a game by that much in a while. We’ll feed off it.”

Joliet Central (5-17, 0-9) managed five hits on the day, reaching base two more times on errors and another time on a hit by pitch. Neveya Ibarra scored a run in the second, and the Steelmen loaded the bases in the third, but that was as close as they could get.

Joliet Central did manage to keep Plainfield North off the board in the fourth inning.

They remain at the bottom of the SPC behind Joliet West’s one conference win. That one win came against the Steelmen.

Again, the playoffs are approaching. That gives the Steelmen time to put something together and shock the area.

“We’re still trying to get rid of that big inning,” coach Jon Rashid said. “I thought we had a chance at getting out of the first inning after giving up only three. It’s about explaining the importance of limiting runs early in the game so we can stay in it. It makes a big difference coming up to bat down 3-0 instead of 7-0.”

Next up for Joliet Central will be a Thursday contest at Yorkville. Plainfield North will host Plainfield Central the same day as they continue pushing towards the postseason.

“We just need to be consistent on defense,” Czerniakowski said. “We’ve got to cut down on errors and keep scoring early. We have to score early and score often which has been a struggle for us so that will be our big focus moving forward.”