Softball: Carlee Clark twirls another playoff shutout, sends St. Francis into sectional final

LISLE – St. Francis senior Carlee Clark enjoys a love/wait relationship with her changeup.

Clark beams about the jewel of her offspeed arsenal while discussing it away from the softball circle. When she’s about to deliver to Spartans catcher Caroline Caesar, though, it’s all about restraining that excitement.

“I try my best to hide it, yeah,” Clark grinned.

There was no escaping the pitch during Wednesday’s Class 3A Benet Sectional semifinal. Clark used her changeup to strike out most of the 10 Trinity batters she fanned in a 3-0 victory that vaulted the Spartans to Saturday’s sectional final.

“I mean, I just kind of see where the hitter is standing in the box and depending on if I’m ahead or behind,” Clark said.

Whatever her approach, the Blazers (17-15) were baffled, becoming the Spartans’ second shutout victim in three postseason games.

Clark scattered six hits and two walks while striking out batters in seven of Trinity’s nine spots in the lineup. The Blazers had their leadoff batter aboard four times and had base runners in six of seven times at bat, but never could solve Clark, who improved to 21-2.

“She has good pop on the ball without the changeup, but when she has the changeup in there, I mean, it gets in their head, ‘What am I looking for?’” Spartans coach Ralph Remus said. “And if they’re looking for the changeup, they’re dead because they’ll never catch up with the thing, and if she keeps it down, you can’t get hurt with it.”

Trinity freshman Danielle Hoffman exploited an occasional St.Francis weakness – the high pitch – to retire the final 14 batters of the game.

Good thing for the Spartans (26-3) that they rattled Hoffman early.

St. Francis collected each of its four hits and all of its runs in the first two innings, but the offensive output could have been greater. Although three of the first four Spartans singled, St. Francis had just one run to show for it.

Blazers center fielder Parker Phillips threw out one Spartan at the plate before a relay from left field erased another.

Remus, who coaches third base, appreciated the luxury of smiling about the sequence afterward.

“I’ll be aggressive. When they prove I shouldn’t be aggressive, I’ll learn,” he said. “I told the kids afterward, ‘What the (heck) is with the coach getting two kids thrown out at home in the first inning?’”

The Spartans scored twice in the second, benefiting from a hit by pitch, three wild pitches and infield error before center fielder Kristina Sherwin smacked an RBI single.

“Just staying focused through it all,” shortstop Annika Norman said. “All of us came in ready to play knowing that it would be a tough game, and I think we prepared well.”

Norman shined defensively throughout, and produced the team’s best highlight with a diving double play to negate Hoffman’s lead off single in the fifth.

Although Norman tried to downplay the effort – “I saw it off the bat and just kind of went for it,” she said – Clark gladly amplified the contribution of each of her teammates.

St. Francis recorded 11 defensive outs that weren’t strikeouts, after all.

“We’re playing so good as a team. I’m really proud of them,”Clark said. “We’ve come so far from the beginning of this season and stuff like that, so I’m really proud of them. They have my back on the field, and we always play as a team really well.”

Blazers coach Rosaria Cicchetti applauded the Spartans’ poise after the game. St. Francis is set to meet the winner of Thursday’s sectional semifinal between Glenbard South and Fenwick.

Fenwick defeated the visiting Spartans in the final week of the regular season, but St. Francis was without much of its lineup due to a conflict with the school’s senior-faculty dinner. Remus said Glenbard South has “always been our nemesis anyway.”

Opposing hitters might say the same about Clark’s changeup.

“Yeah, it’s pretty expected from Carly,” Norman said.