YHS Sports Roundup: Wild Finish Highlights Successful Week for Lady Foxes Softball

The week ended a whole lot better than it started for the Yorkville softball team.

After dropping a non-conference game, 7-5, to Plainfield North on Monday, the Lady Foxes won three straight conference games to get back into the thick of the Northern Illinois Big 12 race.

Yorkville received a great day at the plate from Nicole Hersam on Tuesday. Hersam was a perfect 4-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

The winning ways continued Thursday with an 11-3 win against Morris. Tara Young had a pair of hits and drove in three runs, Cacey Maciejewski had three hits and scored three runs and Sonja Gilbertson heated up with a three hits, including a home run and drove in two runs.

The big moment of the week, however, occurred Friday where the Lady Foxes battled with Kaneland for the equivalent of two full games, edging the Knights, 8-7, in 14 innings.

Gilbertson once again had the hot bat, going 5-for-8 with a triple and four RBIs, while Corrine Rowe joined in the fun with five hits, including three doubles. Freshman Rachael Owens picked up the victory, pitching 11 2/3 innings of relief. She fanned six.

The Lady Foxes are 13-9 overall, 6-2 in conference play.

Lights, camera, action, wait; Lights, please!

A cold and wet spring that forced the disappointing cancellation of the Matt Wulf Invite earlier this year and has forced Yorkville’s track and field athletes to compete in less than ideal conditions became even stranger Friday night.

Competing at the inaugural Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Meet at Kaneland on Friday, the Lady Foxes and the rest of the competitors had the meet delayed when Kaneland’s stadium lights would not turn on. The rest of the meet was moved to Sycamore where it was restarted at approximately 10 p.m. and didn’t end until after midnight.

Noteworthy efforts for the Lady Foxes included a time of 9 minutes 30.80 seconds by the 4 x 800-meter relay team and a 4:09 from the 4 x 400 relay. Esther Bell ran 2:18 in the 800 and Ali Hester finished with a 5:12.79 in the mile.

“Our 4 x 800 (Bri Stuepfert, Leena Palmer, Hester and Bell) dominated the event, running a season-best,” Yorkville coach Ben Draper said. “It was just a consistent effort by the girls, splitting a 2:24, 2:23, 2:23 and an anchor leg by Esther at 2:19 when she was already 150 [meters] ahead of second place.”

Friday’s meet was the final one for many on the Yorkville team which will compete in a sectional on Thursday and hopes to get state qualifiers in the 4 x 800 4 x 400 relays, and the 3,200 and 1,600 runs.

“Other than those events, we could have a few surprises, but it will be a great chance for our young girls to see what a sectional meet is like,” Draper said. “The pressure of the final meet is a valuable experience to go through and they’ll be better for it come next season.”

 For full results, check this website.

Baseball: Hanging above .500

YHS baseball dropped two of three to DeKalb last week, blasted Rochelle and then lost a wild high-scoring non-conference game to Aurora Central on Friday.

On Monday, DeKalb took the opener in a Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference game, 8-5. The Bars scored in every inning except the sixth.

Tuesday, the Foxes fed off of a pregame ceremony to retire the No. 52 jersey of longtime head coach Eric Miller. Derek Pisczewk doubled and drove in two runs to lead the Foxes.

The Foxes made it two straight, blasting Rochelle, 15-0, on Wednesday. Pisczek pitched four innings of one-hit baseball, striking out two and walking no one.

DeKalb denied the Foxes in Thursday's rubber game of their three-game series, 11-5 and then on Friday, Aurora Central held on for an 11-10 victory.

The Foxes are 13-12 overall and 5-7 in conference play heading into Monday's conference game at Sycamore. Yorkville will try to stay above .500 the rest of the spring, in hopes of its first winning season since 2002 (22-17).

Cruise control for YHS boys tennis

The YHS boys tennis team continued its impressive season, cruising to a pair of Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference wins last week, as well as a non-conference victory.

The Foxes shut out DeKalb, 5-0 Monday, beat LaSalle-Peru 4-1 Tuesday and breezed to a 6-1 win against Plainfield South on Thursday.

Fabricino leads Lady Foxes soccer to victory

Yorkville's Michelle Fabricino scored twice Thursday to help the Lady Foxes get back on track with a 5-1 win over Sterling in Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference action.

The Lady Foxes weren't as successful Monday, victimized for an unlucky seven goals, in a 7-3 loss to Dixon.

Yorkville had its final two conference games against Morris on Tuesday and Ottawa on Wednesday before beginning the postseason on Friday against Aurora Central. If the Lady Foxes can win Friday they would play Rosary on May 17.

Boys Track: Fourth at Lisle; potential conference title Friday

The YHS boys track and field team was at the Lisle Invitational on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Foxes, prom was also scheduled for Saturday, making it difficult for the athletes to be focused and some even left early. Still, the Foxes took fourth place out of 27 teams.

The boys next turn their focus to Friday’s conference meet where Yorkville coach Ben Draper hopes the team’s depth can lift them past Kaneland.

“We have the chance to have multiple scorers in a lot of events,” he said. “If those secondary scorers can step up for us, we might have a shot at pulling off an upset over Kaneland, who I think is the favorite heading in.

“We have never had a team win a conference championship until this team did it at the [conference] indoor meet back in March. The athletes have circled this meet on the calendar—they looked up in the YHS gym back in January and saw that the boys track team does not have a banner up on the wall, and wanted to change that.

"They have to pick each other up if something goes wrong, and celebrate when things go well—if we can get the momentum rolling early in the meet, we should have a chance. It is going to take a special meet by everyone on the team to win this meet.”

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