Bowen's Senior Moments Spark Kits To Regional Win

Siena Bowen enjoyed several senior moments Monday.

And she helped deliver a rare victory for the Evanston girls softball team in the process.

Bowen’s two-run home run --- the first of her ETHS career --- and stellar defensive play at third base combined with sophomore Samara Herman-Lopez’s one-hit pitching over the first six innings as the Wildkits turned the tables on Highland Park and held on for a 5-3 victory in the Illinois High School Association Class 4A regional tournament quarterfinals.

Evanston bowed twice to the Giants during the regular season. Monday’s triumph kept the season alive for the No. 17 seeded Kits, who will take on the No. 1 seed in the Glenbrook North Sectional --- Mundelein --- on Tuesday at the Prospect Regional site.

Under first-year head coach Greg Liske, the young Wildkits are destined to tie the single season school record for losses, matching the 2009 team that went 4-26. But you wouldn’t know that from the energy displayed by the entire squad and the smiles on the faces of the players even as they shrug off their latest loss.

The team chemistry hasn’t suffered even in the wake of a season where sometimes the Kits don’t hit, sometimes they don’t pitch, and sometimes they don’t defend well. Liske’s team improved to 4-25-2 overall Monday --- and 1-0 in the “second season.”

And Bowen is glad she came back to be a part of it, win or lose. She didn’t play softball last spring to concentrate on her volleyball career and is currently one of just four seniors on the varsity roster.

“I played with all of these girls when we were younger, and I felt like I needed to come back and play with them one more time,” Bowen said. “I took a year off from softball last year because my volleyball club had moved (training sites) an hour and a half away, and I didn’t want to waste my parents’ money.

“I love all of my teammates and I’ll always be there for them. Obviously, winning is important, but I’ve enjoyed the entire season with them. Why would I want to be on a team that wins, but where the players don’t like each other? The team chemistry is great.”

Bowen has had a solid year offensively for the Wildkits, hitting in the .290 range, but only had four extra base hits all spring before knocking a two-run blast to left field against Highland Park starter Lily Freedman. Her round-tripper came after Herman-Lopez had singled in the top of the first inning.

The Wildkits experienced momentum with a capital M when Bowen’s blast landed well behind the fence.

“Typically, I am more of a contact hitter,” Bowen said. “I just kept my hands high, trying to drive the ball, and when I hit it I just took off and ran. Then I heard the whole team scream and I didn’t even know where the ball was. That was a really exciting moment and I just tried to get the whole team hyped up.”

“Having that kind of momentum was huge for us. 100 percent, we are a team that thrives on that kind of momentum,” Liske said. “Siena always gives 100 percent in everything she does. She wants to have fun and she wants to do it competitively. Sometimes taking a year off like she did gives you a chance to re-set. She’s naturally athletic and she’s just gotten better and better for us. It’s really nice to have the positive energy that she and the other seniors (Sophie Berger-White, Jessica Frolichstein, Sammy Blix) bring for us.

“She was able to corral a ball for us (at third base) because she got down and dirty and saved us at least two runs, maybe three, with that play. We weren’t diving after balls earlier in the year and I actually had a practice where we did all kinds of diving and shaking and talked about being more aggressive.”

That defensive gem was just one of the plethora of plays even Bowen herself acknowledged were “weird.”

In the third inning, she helped bail Herman-Lopez out of a jam that could have produced a big rally by the host Giants. A walk, and a dropped third strike gave the Giants their first baserunners, and Herman-Lopez walked Emma Cooper on a play that should have loaded the baes with two outs.

On that same pitch, however, Highland Park baserunner Arden Bubser strayed too far off third base, and a pickoff throw from catcher Maddie Berry to Bowen nailed the runner and ended the threat.

Bowen’s dive in the fourth to quell another budding rally belongs on the team highlight film. She speared the smash by Freedman to her right, and then extended her bare hand to register the inning ending forceout before Maddie Swender could get to the bag for the Giants.

The weirdness continued in the ETHS 6^th when Bowen hit a fly ball to right center that glanced off the glove of the HP right fielder --- and into the glove of the center fielder for a not-so-routine out. And she was on one end of a bizarre play rarely seen in softball with the season on the line in the bottom of the 7^th.

With two outs, Bowen fielded a tap by Cooper but her throw to first baseman Katie Lindsay-Ryan was high and pulled Lindsay-Ryan slightly into the basepath. Lindsay-Ryan was charged with obstruction, a miscue that kept the rally alive, and Highland Park went down fighting with back-to-back RBI singles from Marin Killeen and Madison Boffeli before Mae Muscarella bounced to second to end the game.

Herman-Lopez, who lined a two-run homer to right center to help her own cause in the 6^th for what turned out to be the margin of victory, went 3-for-4 at the plate and logged the first pitching victory of her varsity career after notching 11 strikeouts and allowing four hits.

It was also the right-hander’s first complete game and Liske was glad to see the sophomore go the distance.

“I thought about taking her out there at the end, but I really wanted Samara to be able to finish this one,” said the ETHS coach. “She has the ability to go deep in games and I had trust in her at that point. It’s her first win, but our offensive production hasn’t always been where it needs to be (when she’s in the circle). To me, her won-loss record is irrelevant (now 1-9), because it doesn’t necessarily determine how good a pitcher she’s been throughout the season.”

Herman-Lopez noted that the support from her teammates hasn’t wavered through the tough times this season.

“Those losses don’t really faze us,” she said. “We just try to focus on the next pitch, the next at-bat, the next inning, the next game, whatever it takes. We all get along super well and the team chemistry really helps me, I know that. We try to focus on the future and not on what’s happened in the past.

“I’m super proud of my teammates and they always have my back in a tight spot. Our energy was super high today --- and I believe in us.We’re a good team even if the record doesn’t say that.”

Herman-Lopez yielded just an infield single by Killeen leading off the 4^th until the Giants got opportunities for some extra swings in the last inning. She struck out five of the first nine batters she faced.

“Today my change-up was a little more effective, and so were my curveball and my rise,” the pitcher noted. “I felt a lot more confident in all three of those pitches today.”

Evanston totaled 11 hits in the triumph, including a 2-for-2 effort by the No. 9 hitter in the lineup, Evelyn Kaiser, who singled twice, walked and scored twice.