Softball: Casey Basic capitalizes on advice, keys St Charles East win
Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: April 11, 2012 8:28PM
She got the message.
Influenced by a mid-game talk from coach Kelly Horan, St. Charles East catcher Casey Basic came up big at the plate in the Saints’ 8-7 nine-inning Upstate Eight crossover win Wednesday over host Metea Valley.
“Coach talked to me and (winning pitcher) Shannon [Pedersen] before I batted in the seventh,” the senior backstop said. “We have a tendency to get very anxious and pull away. I waited back and it flew. Right when I hit it, I knew it was out.”
Basic’s drive off Stephanie Bova cleared the fence in left-center for the Saints’ first home run of the season. More importantly, it gave the visitors a 5-4 lead.
“Considering how we felt in the dugout, I thought it was going to be enough,” Basic said.
Pedersen heeded the advice, too. She followed with a single to left for her only hit of the game but was stranded.
Metea Valley wasn’t done, however. Kim Baker singled with one out and moved up on a walk and hit batter. She came home on Alyssa Coletto’s sacrifice fly for the third tie of the game, sending it into extra innings.
The Saints took advantage of five Mustang errors in the ninth to score three runs on a rally started again by Basic. Her drive tailing toward the left field line was misplayed for a two-base error. They needed every one of those runs, though, as Metea Valley rallied on an RBI single by Coletto and sacrifice fly by Bova.
St. Charles East climbs to 9-7 and 2-3 in the Upstate Eight River Division while Metea Valley fell to 4-3 and 2-3 in the UEC Valley.
“We’re beating ourselves, beating ourselves defensively,” Metea Valley coach Kris Kalivas said. “That was an area I thought we would be strong, and we had a double play and triple play in games at the start of the year, but we’re making mistakes on routine plays. We’ve gotta fix that.”
They’ll have one day of practice before resuming Friday at the two-day, six-team Fox Valley Tournament hosted by West Aurora at the Stuart Park Completx on Jericho Road.
Basic started the scoring with a second-inning double over the center fielder’s head. She came home on a fielder’s choice ground out.
Metea’s Anna Petersen answered with her third home run of the season, a solo drive to center in the second. It was one of her three hits. Coletto also had three hits and Kim Baker and Emily Baker two each for the Mustangs.
“Offensively, I couldn’t be happier,” Kalivas said. “We bunted well, we got hits. When you put seven on the board, you feel like you should win.”
Leadoff batter Alexis Perez had three hits and No. 2 hitter Sarah Collalti added two for the Saints.
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