Softball Season Finale Bittersweet for Batavia

There was a good news-bad news element to Batavia’s postseason debut in the Class 4A regional softball tournament this past week at St. Charles East.

On the downside, the Bulldogs’ much-improved season came to a halt after their 9-2 loss to seventh-seeded Lake Park (23-14) on May 25.

The positive part was provided by sophomore Katie Ryan, who stepped to the plate in the top of the fifth and smacked a two-run home run over the fence in straightaway center. Ryan’s team-record 18^th home run of the season tied the Illinois High School Association’s single-season record set by Becky Clark of Newton in 1982. Leyden junior Morgan Maize also belted her 18^th home run of the season during Saturday’s regional championship win over Conant.

Maize will get another chance to eclipse the mark when Leyden faces second-seeded St. Charles North in Thursday’s Schaumburg sectional semifinals.

As for Ryan, she’ll have two more seasons to try and better her amazing offensive performance.

“The great thing about Katie is that she doesn’t care (about home runs),” said Batavia coach Ashley Szymski. “She just hits. She’s not worried about her numbers whatsoever. I think I get more excited than she does.”

Lake Park, which went on to drop an 11-1, six-inning decision to St. Charles North in Saturday’s regional finals, scored at least one run in each of the first five innings against the 10^th-seeded Bulldogs (20-9).

In the first, Shannon Fritsche led off with an infield single and eventually came across on a  ground-out to put the Lancers on top 1-0. Lake Park added two more runs off of starting pitcher Brooke Nelson (7-3) in the second, thanks in part to Stephanie Aronson’s RBI double.

Vanessa Wegner’s sacrifice fly and Sammi Vega’s run-scoring double upped the Lancers’ lead to 5-0 and chased Nelson in the third.

Lake Park made it 7-0 with a pair of fourth-inning runs off of junior reliever Katie Coleman before Ryan put the Bulldogs on the board with a towering home run off of Lancers starting pitcher Lisa Baumgart.

Baumgart (16-10), who had given up a home run to Ryan in their previous meeting, a 4-2 Lake Park regular-season victory at Batavia, allowed eight hits during a complete-game effort.

Catcher Emily Dorjath, one of the Bulldogs’ four senior starters, finished 2-for-3 with a double. It also marked the final high school game for Christine Lynam, Lindsay McEachern, and Nelson.

Batavia played without the services of junior shortstop/pitcher Katie Neubauer, who missed the final three weeks of the season with a foot injury.