Softball: Glenbard North rallies past Naperville North

Updated: May 16, 2012 8:07PM

Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew thought his team had tied Naperville North in the top of the fifth inning after waving leadoff hitter Bri Harn home following a single up the middle by pitcher Lilly Fecho.

Sanew centered his attention on Fecho to see if she would advance to second on the play. What he didn’t see was Harn fall halfway down the line, forcing her to retreat back to third base.

Harn would remain there and the No. 2 Panthers would still trail by a run. It remained that way until the sixth until Harn and her teammates rallied back to eventually secure a 3-1 win in DuPage Valley conference action.

Harn laid down one of the two successful squeeze bunts to highlight the three-run inning and help avenge the Panthers first loss of the season.

“I really wanted to lay the bunt down to show my head was still in the game,” said Harn, who was 3-for-4 after striking out to lead off the game against Huskies pitcher Kathleen Hahne (15-8).

Hahne got out of consecutive bases loaded jams in the first two innings after her team scored a run in the top of the first against Fecho (23-2), a Purdue recruit. An RBI single by Tara Degl’Innocenti scored freshman Alexis Solak, who was the recipient of one of Fecho’s six walks.

Alexis Simone and Harn each laid down consecutive squeeze bunts in the sixth while Alex Caliva added an RBI ground out for the Panthers (30-2, 12-2) to complete the scoring. The Huskies (20-10, 9-5) didn’t go down without a fight during a controversial bottom half of the inning.

That is when they appeared to have load the bases with nobody out when Degl’Innocenti was hit in the head by Fecho while attempting to bunt. Fecho immediately motioned to the home plate umpire that Degl’Innocenti never pulled her bunt attempt back.

After a conversation between the base and home umpires they agreed and called it strike two. Huskies coach Jerry Kedziora didn’t like the call and was subsequently ejected from the game for excessive arguing.

Degl’Innocenti would end up striking out and Fecho eventually got out of the jam.

“I didn’t understand it and I went out there and talked to the umpire and he said a couple things and I got mad,” Kedziora said. “The ruling was she had the bat out and offered the pitch. If a girl ducks her head back how can she keep it out to offer at the pitch?

“I would have had nobody out with our leading RBI person (Kailee Budicin) up and I liked our chances there.”

Budicin followed with a single but Fecho (two hits, 10 strikeouts) retired the next five batters to end the game.

The Huskies will need West Chicago, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season, to win at least one of the two games scheduled against Naperville Central on Thursday to claim a share of the conference title.

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