Softball: Minooka too strong for Oswego

Updated: April 26, 2012 9:49PM

Minooka softball coach Mark Brown knows his team has the pitching to succeed with co-aces Jaclyn Lilek and Sara Novak capable of dominating.

What Brown has been waiting for is the offense to catch up with the pitching.

Brown got his wish Thursday.

The Indians opened up the second half of Southwest Prairie Conference play with a dominating performance with the sticks, hammering Oswego 14-1 in six innings.

“We’ve been getting some solid pitching all year,” Brown said. “We’ve been close to breaking through in the hit column, and today, we finally broke through. We were confident that our whole team can hit, it’s just a matter of putting the bat on the ball. In practice, we’ve been really going at it offensively.”

The hard work paid off with regularity Thursday for Minooka (16-4 overall, 7-1 SPC). After scoring a run in the first to take the lead, the Indians exploded from there. A three-run third was started by Jordyn Larsen’s laser beam that hit the center field fence. Lindsey Fenner followed with a single and Novak doubled them in. She later scored on an error.

The Indians then put down the hammer on Oswego (8-12, 1-7) in the sixth inning, scoring eight times to blow the game wide open. Larsen crushed her third home run of the season, a two-run shot, and Mikayla Melone belted a three-run homer in the inning.

“Not taking anything away from them, if we come out and hit, our pitchers are going to keep us in it,” Brown said. “I’m not surprised at the outcome, just because I know the talent that we have on our side.”

Lilek was more than solid in the pitcher’s circle to earn the win. In her six innings, she struck out seven, walked two and allowed a run on two hits.

It was a disappointing loss for Oswego, which was coming off of a solid performance in a 7-6 loss to Plainfield South — the SPC co-leader with Minooka — on Tuesday.

“We played a good game on Tuesday,” Oswego coach John Carlson said. “We played them to 7-4 the first time, tried to score late. They’re just good. They hit the ball well. We’re young. We play a good game, then we have a little slump. But Minooka is good.”

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