BARRINGTON, Ill. — Hononegah head coach Denny McKinney went into Tuesday’s season opener against Hersey expecting to use three or four pitchers.
He changed his mind, however, as he saw Aislynn Palmer set down batter after batter.
The sophomre right-hander pitched a four-hit 2-0 shutout against Hersey (Arlington Heights) with 14 strikeouts in the Barrington Spring Fling Tournament.
“Aislynn was in a groove,” McKinney said. “I asked her before the last inning how she felt. She said she was fine so I told her it was her ballgame. All I did different in the last inning was let (catcher) Dani (Franz) call the pitches. She knew what was working during the course of the game.
“I think it was a statement game.”
Palmer closed out the win by fanning the side.
Expected to be the best day weather-wise of the week, temperatures were in the high 50s with an occasional gusty wind at Palmer’s back.
“It was a pretty good day to pitch, really,” Palmer said. “A couple of gusts took a few pitches out of the zone, but it wasn’t too bad.”
As a freshman, Palmer was sort of a reluctant pitcher, but she ended up earning All-NIC-10 honors as she and senior Lexi Bach took up most of the innings.
“This year I’m good with knowing that I’m going to be a pitcher,” Palmer said. “I want to be someone they can rely on.”
She’s off to a great start and Hononegah needed a solid outing in the circle because it also managed just four hits off starter Grace Grabowy (four innings, two hits, one unearned run) and reliever Ariya Patel (two innings, two hits, one unearned run).
The Indians did manage to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Peyton Klikno was hit by a pitch leading off and an out later, Palmer doubled to move her to third. Franz collected an RBI with a grounder to the shortstop with Hersey tagging the baserunner trying to move to third as Klikno scampered home.
The Indians tacked on a run in the fifth inning, with Klikno again doing the honors. She led off with a single, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored when the catcher overthrew third on a pickoff attempt.
Palmer did the rest. The only inning she ran into trouble was the sixth when Hersey put runners on second and third with two outs. She got out of the jam with a strikeout.
“She threw mainly fastballs and curveballs and an occasional riseball,” Franz said. “They had a hard time catching up to her fastball the whole game.”
Freshman Irelyn O’Brien led Hononegah with two hits in her varsity debut.
Hononegah will return to Barrington Wednesday, weather permitting, to play Antioch at 4:45 p.m.
• LINESCORE:
HONONEGAH 2, HERSEY 0
Hersey 000 000 0 — 0 4 3
Hononegah 001 010 x — 2 4 0
Leading hitters: He, Izenstark 2x3. Ho, O’Brien 2x3, Klikno 1x2, 2 runs; Palmer 1x2. 2B: Palmer, O’Brien.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): He, Grabowy (L) 4.0-2-1-0-3-2; Patel 2.0-2-1-0-1-3. Ho, Palmer (W) 7.0-4-0-0-1-14.
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