MACHESNEY PARK, Ill. – Hononegah’s lone hiccup during the NIC-10 season came against Harlem when, with the conference championship secured, head coach Denny McKinney chose not to give No. 1 pitcher Aislynn Palmer the ball.
He figured, why give the Huskies another long look at his ace?
Saturday, the move paid off with Palmer pitching a complete game with 13 strikeouts and the Indians capturing a 4A regional title with a 10-2 victory at the Harlem Community Sports Complex.
“There’s a huge rivalry between these two schools and I think it was a statement game for us,” said Palmer, who said she was battling a cold and wasn’t close to 100 percent.
“I’ve had a cough and sore throat for about a week,” she said. “Then I cut on my (index) finger and they had to come out and Super Glue that. About the fifth inning I could tell my velocity on my pitches was slowing down. I was starting to feel the medicine I took was wearing off, but I knew I could push through.”
It helped that the Indians gave her plenty of support in the field and also at the plate, including a two-run opposite field home run by first baseman Natalie Kinney, who was at graduation ceremonies at the BMO Center with catcher Danielle Franz about an hour-and-a-half before the regional game.
“I know (Harlem starter) Alaina Schwanke always tries to pitch me low and on the outside corner,” the left-handed batting Kinney said of her homer. “That’s what I tried to prepare for in hitting practice this week. When I saw that pitch I didn’t know I’d hit it out, but I knew I’d hit it to left field.”
The Indians (30-3) move on to play at Barrington on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
“This team is capable of anything,” Kinney said. “I think we have a good chance against Barrington. If we stay calm and relaxed we can come out of that better game than most expect.”
The Indians took advantage of two Harlem errors and a wild pitch and scored twice in the first inning. Harlem got a run back in the third when Aubrey Burbach singled and Rylie Adams knocked her in with a two-out double. The rally ended there, however, with catcher Franz cutting Adams down trying to move to third on the late throw to the plate.
Kinney then smacked her long homer in the bottom of the inning to make it 4-1.
“It doesn’t hurt that these kids have seen Alaina so much,” McKinney said. “But I don’t care who’s on the mound, give these kids a couple looks and they’ll start squaring the ball up. These are some great kids.”
Schwanke made it a 4-2 game with a leadoff homer in the top of the fifth, but again Hononegah had an answer as Zoey Calhoun smacked a solo homer leading off the bottom of the inning. Kinney then singled and a throwing error by the shortstop allowed another run to score.
Hononegah tacked on four more runs in the sixth inning with the first four Indians all collecting hits, including a double by Kaelyn Kelly that scored two. After Calhoun singled, Schwanke was replaced by Adams who then hit Palmer to load the bases. Franz walked to force in a ninth run and Peyton Klikno ripped an RBI single for the 10-2 final.
The Indians finished with 11 hits, 10 coming off NIC-10 Player of the Year Schwanke. Kinney, Calhoun, Kelly and Mackenzie Haas each collected two.
• BOXSCORE:
HONONEGAH 10, HARLEM 2
Harlem;001;010;0;--;2;9;3
Hononegah;202;024;x;--;10;11;0
HARLEM (ab-r-h-rbi) – Schwanke, p-2b, 3-1-1-1; Knutson, 1b, 4-0-1-0; Burbach, c, 4-0-1-0; Adams, p, 3-0-2-1; Christensen, ph, 1-0-0-0; Rivas, 2b, 3-0-0-0; Winters, rf, 2-0-1-0; Smith, rf, 1-1-0-0; Myers, lf, 2-0-1-0; Segalla, cf, 3-0-2-0; Schuld, ss, 2-0-0-0; Henderson, ss, 1-0-0-0. Totals: 29-2-9-2.
HONONEGAH (ab-r-h-rbi) – Kelly, 2b, 4-2-2-2; Calhoun, lf, 4-1-2-1; Palmer, p, 2-0-1-0; Franz, c, 3-0-0-1; Kinney, 1b, 3-1-2-2; Midgett, 1b, 1-1-0-0; O’Brien, rf, 4-0-0-0; Klikno, cf, 4-0-1-1; Haas, 3b, 4-1-2-0; Hulburt, 3b, 1-0-0-0; Tapia, rf, 2-1-1-0. Totals: 32-10-11-7.
E: Schuld 2, Winters. LOB: Harlen, Hono . 2B: Kelly, Haas, Segalla, Adams. HR: Kinney, Calhoun, Schwanke. SB: Kelly.
Pitching: Harlem, Schwanke (L) 5.0-10-9-6-1-5; Adams 1.0-1-1-1-1-1. Hono, Palmer (W) 7.0-9-2-2-3-13.
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