Berger-White Goes Deep Twice In 7-7 Tie

Sophie Berger-White came back to the Evanston softball program this season just to have some fun.

Right now the ETHS senior is having a lot more fun than the opposing pitchers are.

Berger-White continued her sizzling start with her best day yet wearing the Orange and Blue on Wednesday. She slugged a pair of home runs and drove in five runs overall while boosting her batting average to a robust .636 through Evanston’s first four games.

Berger-White’s heroics couldn’t deliver Evanston’s first victory, however. The Wildkits settled for a 7-7 tie with Resurrection Wednesday in a contest called after seven innings due to darkness.

Resurrection’s Emily Cook hit an opposite field 3-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to deny the Kits their first win, dropping them to 0-3-1 on the season. But the pluses --- most of them coming from Evanston’s senior class --- far outweighed the minuses for the Kits, unlike the first three games under first-year head coach Greg Liske when they were outscored 29-9 and couldn’t accomplish much on offense, defense or in the pitching circle against Niles North, Ridgewood and Batavia.

Evanston looked like a different team Wednesday.

“I’ll take a tie,” said Liske. “I think this was a huge step forward for us today. This is the team I was waiting for to show up. They played their hearts out and they made the plays when they needed to make the plays. This is exactly what we needed going into spring break.

“The best part about Sophie (Berger-White) is that she’s such a good leader. Her skill set shows on the field and off the field, and I’m really happy for her and the start she’s off to. All of the seniors are really stepping up for us as leaders.”

They showed the way for a team that started four sophomores at Resurrection. Siena Bowen contributed a key 2-run single in her first at-bat of the season, and right fielder Sammy Blix robbed Bandits’ catcher Izzy Sanchez of a potential extra-base hit with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

But it was Berger-White’s day. She hit a solo home run in the first, hit another deep shot with a teammate aboard in almost the exact same spot in the third, and singled home two more runs for the visitors in the fifth, before the Bandits wisely issued her an intentional walk when ETHS threatened again in the seventh.

Berger-White also played flawless defense at shortstop. She played softball at an all-conference level her first two seasons on the ETHS varsity, then skipped softball as a junior for reasons she didn’t want to discuss.

“I just decided to come back this year. I decided it’s about having fun, and I felt comfortable and I felt good about coming back,” said Berger-White, who was a member of Evanston’s tennis team in the fall. “I’ve been playing travel baseball since I was in third grade and I guess it’s just in me (to play). Obviously, it’s more fun when you win, but the losing (in her first two varsity seasons) wasn’t really a big factor in not playing. It’s just about the effort to me.

“I’ve never hit two homers in a game before and right now I’m pretty fired up about it. I definitely didn’t expect this.”

After an 0-for-3 showing in her first game of fast-pitch in more than a year, Berger-White has gone 7-for-8 at the plate with six runs-batted-in, including a double and two homers.

Wednesday, she was part of 8-hit attack by the Wildkits against a Resurrection team that had won three of its first four games. Her home runs staked the Kits to leads of 1-0 and 3-2, and the visitors broke through for four more runs in the fifth to grab a 7-4 advantage against Res right-hander Grace Samatas.

Evanston trailed 4-3 in the fifth after a pair of Wildkit errors produced the go-ahead run for Resurrection. One of those errors came when catcher Maddie Berry dropped a throw at the plate, was injured and had to leave the game.

Her replacement in the lineup, Bowen, came through in the clutch after ETHS had reclaimed the lead on two errors, a walk and Berger-White’s single. Bowen ripped a single off the glove of third baseman Olivia Magruder on a 1-2 pitch with two outs to push the lead to 7-4.

Sophomore hurler Esha Ghose escaped a first and third jam in the fifth, and struck out the first Res batter in the sixth. But she walked Sarah Shewchuk on a 3-2 pitch --- the only walk she yielded in the game --- and Belle Mendoza, the No. 9 hitter in the order, singled sharply to center.

Two pitches later, the left-handed hitting Cook homered over the fence in left center to snatch a win away from the Wildkits.