Softball: Blitt's Throw Preserves Spartan Victory

The Deerfield and Glenbrook North softball teams haven’t been outside much lately, and the cold weather made it hard for the hitters at Thursday's Central Suburban League North contest.

So it was fitting that the key play late in the game came on the defensive side.

With the Warriors trailing by two in the bottom of the seventh, Jessica Rutstein stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. Rutstein blasted a single up the middle, but junior Rachel Blitt made a perfect throw from center field and catcher Alena Marovitz applied the tag on Laurie Polisky at home.

Pitcher Jenny McTague got Emily Shanker to ground out to third to end the game and seal the Spartans’ 3-1 win in the game at Deerfield.

“It was a do or die play, which means I had to run in really fast,” Blitt said. “The ball’s been dying. We knew that from the warmups, so I knew that I had to charge it hard so I just charged and let it go. Luckily it got there good and she tagged her out. It was just adrenaline.”

The Spartans managed just four hits off Deerfield starter Zoey Fishman. Fishman went the distance with eight strikeouts, including striking out the side in the third against the top of the order. However, GBN was efficient with their opportunities.

“They really only had a couple of hits, but they capitalized on theirs and we didn’t do enough hitting and just getting on base to catch up to them,” Deerfield coach Kevin Koopman said. “Other than that I thought it was pretty good game. I hate to lose it because it was a conference game, but I thought my girls were in it right until the end.

“We had runners on base and the girls that came up are some of my better girls. I really felt like we could push through it and get those two runs to tie the game at least, if not go ahead and win it, but they made some good plays.”

Katie Riley drove in the game’s first run with a single up the middle with two runners on in the second. Blitt scored, but Rutstein gunned down Ilana Solomon at home plate to end the inning and hold the Spartans to one run.

Deerfield tied it up in the third after a pair of walks gave Rutstein runners on the corners with one out. Rutstein hit a ball to center for a sacrifice fly to score Polisky. Rutstein finished 2-3, the only multi-hit performance of the game.

GBN answered right back in the top of the fourth. Marovitz led off with a single before Colleen Ahern crushed a ball that went all the way to the right field wall. Ahern scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-1. The Spartans wouldn’t threaten again, but Deerfield had multiple chances late.

Back to back errors on groundballs in the sixth gave the Warriors two on with one out, but McTague got two more batters to ground out to escape the inning. McTague kept her infielders busy, inducing 11 groundouts.

“Jenny is doing a good job on the mound,” Spartans’ coach Jenn Mau said. “She works hard. The girls behind her are working hard. We have struggled on our defensive end with making errors and bouncing back. Today they did bounce back. I think if they made an error, they next time they got a ball they did execute the play."

"It’s a long season and each day we’re trying to make adjustments and learn from them," she added.

Offensively, it wasn’t the kind of performance Mau wanted.

“Our hitters were not in there ready and focused,” she said. “We came out with the win. They did make some adjustments along the way. They did stay in the game and fight, so that’s all I can really say.”

The Warriors (2-11, 1-2) are trying to overcome a slow start to the season, but Koopman said he was encouraged with the effort.

On the other side, GBN (7-4-1, 3-0) looks primed to repeat as conference champs despite having just one senior.

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