Softball: Taylor Weissenhofer, Lockport quiet Homewood-Flossmoor

Updated: May 9, 2012 8:53PM

Hit a home run one day, put the bat away the next.

Lockport’s Taylor Weissenhofer wasn’t at all surprised, though, when she wasn’t in the hitting portion of the Porters lineup for Wednesday’s 6-1 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory over host Homewood-Flossmoor.

“Coach (Marissa) Chovanec is trying to stay between me and (teammate) Britni Vrba,” Weissenhofer said. “In the next 10 games we are going to switch off to see who gets in a groove. And whoever does that will hit in the postseason.”

There is no doubt who’ll be doing the pitching.

Weissenhofer added to an impressive string of outings of late, striking out 14 while firing a two-hitter. Briana Carney (two doubles, two RBI) led the way offensively for the Porters (21-6, 9-1), who kept pace with Lincoln-Way East atop the conference.

Angela Roberts had the only hit for H-F (15-11, 6-4), a towering home run with one out in the seventh. Sarah Burke struck out 10.

Weissenhofer’s 14 strikeouts give her 57 over her last five starts. Her only other mistake besides Roberts’ blast was hitting Kaitlyn Shereyk with a pitch in the fifth.

Ahead in the count on almost every hitter, Weissenhofer had the Vikings chasing her riseball and freezing on fastballs on the lower half of the plate. Twice, H-F batters swung at inside pitches that hit them, resulting in strikes.

“We were just mixing it up, trying to find their weaknesses at the plate,” Carney, her catcher, said. “She’s really gotten better on getting ahead (in the count). She’s definitely stepping up for us.”

Burke retired the first five Porters before Ashley London doubled down the left-field line and came in on an RBI single by Allison Foley. A Carney double and hits by Carly Dundee, Katelyn Hair and Melissa Stoch highlighted a four-run third, while Carney rapped another two-bagger for an RBI in the top of the seventh.

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