Softball: Joliet West’s 10-run fourth buries Joliet Central

Updated: April 25, 2012 9:54PM

Like a cold slap in the face on the old Aqua Velva commercial, Joliet West coach Heather Suca and her Tigers might have said, “Thanks, we needed that.”

West exploded for 10 runs with the help of five errors in the top of the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie Wednesday and whipped SouthWest Suburban Blue rival Joliet Central 15-3.

“This was huge. We definitely needed one,” Suca said after the Tigers (11-10, 2-3) snapped a six-game skid. “Even in the first few innings, I thought we were hitting it solid. Then we finally got a break when a ground ball found its way through, and we went from there.”

The grounder came compliments of winning pitcher Joy Treasure and knocked in the first two runs of the big inning. Before it ended, Tresa Fahrner singled in two, Bri Thompson doubled one in and Jen Ames and Lily Ongkiko added RBI singles.

“That’s how we’ve been doing it,” Treasure said. “We go innings without scoring, and then it finally comes.”

“We had stayed with them before then, but we couldn’t come back from that inning,” Central coach Erin Douglas said.

“What I’m most proud of is we easily could have rolled over, but instead we kept trying to come back by doing things to chip away one run at a time.”

The Steelmen (10-12, 0-6) hit the ball much better against Treasure (2-1) in the later innings, when Taelor Martin singled in a run and Emily Eichholzer contributed an RBI double. But the sophomore right-hander hung tough.

“This was maybe my fourth game pitching on varsity, and I got a good chance to show what I can do,” she said.

“We had a good day offensively and defensively.”

Thompson doubled twice and singled for West. Katie McKay doubled twice, while Treasure and Ames had two hits.

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