A strike by Bowler
NAPERVILLE -- Closers like the Milwaukee Brewers' Trevor Hoffman are commonplace in baseball. In softball, not so much, but Lockport High School senior Dana Bowler brought the Hoffman-like heat in relief Wednesday afternoon.
After fifth-seeded Hinsdale South rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the third inning and then lined a two-out single in the fourth off senior left-hander Alyssa Vorel, Porters coach Marissa Chovanec summoned Bowler -- whose first warmup toss smacked the backstop.
One pitch a time.
"I don't think anyone prefers to come into a 0-0 ballgame," nodded Bowler, the Ferris State University-bound righty. "I think when Alyssa faced the bases loaded, they had the momentum in that inning and we turned it around after that. I just try to take it inning by inning."
Just like a bowler hitting the pocket for strikes, Bowler owned the final three innings at Frontier Park. She fanned 4 and retired all nine batters she faced, popping top-seeded Lockport to a 3-1 victory over the Hornets in the Class 4A Neuqua Valley Sectional semifinals.
Senior second baseman Kayleigh Bertram, the Grand Valley State signee, led Lockport (29-6) with a single and 2 RBIs. Senior outfielder Morgan Kramerich, Bowler's future teammate at Ferris State, also singled and scored. Senior DH Megan Jones had the other hit.
Meanwhile, Hinsdale South (26-7) also managed only 3 hits off of Vorel (12-2), who struck out 2, allowed a walk and plunked a batter in her four innings. While the Hornets' run was unearned, the Porters completed a major-league caliber double play to squelch that lone threat.
Still, Lockport was looking at a meager 2-1 lead until the bottom of the sixth, when senior catcher Samantha Stanicek coaxed her second walk to lead off. Junior pinch-runner Andrea Senne scored on Bertram's beautiful suicide squeeze bunt to provide the Porters a better cushion than sitting on a La-Z-Boy sofa.
By striking out a pair in the seventh, Bowler clinched her third save of the season and second in as many games to advance Lockport to Saturday's 10 a.m. championship game between the winner of today's semifinal pitting Naperville Central (28-6) against Benet Academy (31-5).
One move at a time.
"Alyssa was doing a great job on the mound, but I felt like they were getting ahold of her a little more than I wanted them to," said Chovanec, whose Porters will be playing for their 10th sectional title. "Dana came in, settled herself down from a little bit of nerves, and she did a great job of taking care of their hitters."
"Dana pitched phenomenally," Bertram said. "She looked good, she looked confident and she did her job. She did what she needed to do. Hinsdale South definitely was starting to get their timing on Alyssa and showed they could hit her, and we needed someone to come in and shut the door."
That door opened slightly during the third as DH Courtney Stoltz blooped a leadoff single barely past second base, outfielder Julia Katsaros lined a single to right and second baseman Michelle Bolos reached on a sacrifice bunt that Lockport turned into an error to load the bases.
Although shortstop Giana Montalbano cut the deficit to 2-1 with a nine-pitch walk, the Porters recovered with a double play that went from a leaping Vorel to a firing Stanicek at the plate to stretching senior Maggie Dugan at first base. Vorel ended the Hornets' buzz with a strikeout.
"Alyssa is a great position player -- she plays her position after she pitches," Stanicek said. "She got the ball to me quickly so I could turn it right away, and Maggie got her timing and made a great stretch on it. That double play really helped us out."
As early as the bottom of the first, Lockport helped itself to the lead. Kramerich sliced a leadoff single down the left-field line, junior shortstop Amanda Stanton sacrificed but gained first on a fielder's choice and Stanicek walked again to load the bases for the dangerous Dugan.
Batting cleanup, Dugan walked on five pitches for the 1-0 edge. Stanton scored on Bertram's one-out RBI grounder. Thereafter, sophomore Amy Narotsky (8-2) limited Lockport to Jones' leadoff single in the second and Bertram's one-out liner to center in the fifth before Bertram notched another RBI.
"When we had the bases loaded in the first inning, that was huge," Kramerich said. "I knew that we were going to score some runs, it was just a matter of how many were we going to get. When you start out like that right away, you feel more relaxed and more comfortable."
In the bottom the sixth, Lockport found the comfort zone as Stanicek walked, Senne entered to run and Dugan took first via an error. A wild pitch sent Senne to third base and set the stage for Bertram, who pulled the curtain on the Hornets' defense by pushing a perfect suicide squeeze up the first-base line.
"The wind was a big factor," Bertram said. "Our long ball was not going to work. We had to work on getting our ball on the ground, getting our bunts down and drawing walks -- anything possible to get on base because the normal way wasn't going to work out for us today."
"We hit the ball long and they caught it, so you have to do the little stuff," Chovanec confirmed. "I think it was our first successful suicide this year, but when we needed it, we got it."
Said Kramerich: "The ball was hanging up in the wind, so we went to small ball with the suicide squeeze. 'Bert' got it down and that was awesome."
The same adjective was applied to Bowler afterward by her teammates. Part of the Porters' three-prong pitching monster featuring Vorel and senior Allison Shimkus, Bowler (9-2) buried 23-of-37 pitches for strikes in her stint after Vorel landed 38-of-54, acting like a Trevor Hoffman working the mitt.
"We all start and we all relieve, and I've been relieving for a long time, even before coming to Lockport," Bowler said. "I'm used to it. Our backup catchers have been patient with me because I'm constantly out there pitching and warming up, and my goal was to get momentum on my side with the first out."
Plus, eight more after that.
