Behind 11-run third inning, Herscher earns series split with Streator

STREATOR – The Streator Bulldogs shocked Herscher on Monday with a surprisingly lopsided loss to open the Illinois Central Eight Conference softball season.

Early Tuesday evening, the Tigers returned the favor.

Herscher responded to Monday’s eight-run home loss at the hands of the Bulldogs with a 13-3, five-inning victory Tuesday at the SHS Athletic Fields.

A seemingly out-of-nowhere 11-run top of the third inning proved to be the difference for the Tigers (6-2 overall, 1-1 ICE), earning the visitors the series split with Streator (2-6, 1-1).

“The kids were definitely locked in,” 11th-year Tigers coach Mike Cann said. “Makenna [Ondrey, Streator’s starting pitcher both Monday and Tuesday] is a big change of pace for us from what we’ve been seeing. Our kids can catch up to her eventually, but last night she was dominating, hitting spots.

“Tonight she was also hitting spots, but we came back with a little vengeance and wanted to even things out.”

The Tigers’ 11-run third came as the result of seven hits – Addy Whitaker with two RBI doubles during the frame complemented by other run-scoring hits off the bats of Anistin Hackley, Emery Fritz and Livvie Wilkins – and a trio of Streator errors. The big inning both chased Ondrey (5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K) from the pitchers circle and brought her back in when the Tigers greeted reliever Caitlin Talty with eight runs (five earned) without allowing her to record an out.

Herscher’s initial run of the game came an inning earlier courtesy of a solo, opposite-field home run from junior catcher/No. 5 hitter Chloe Kinkade.

“I knew it was going out when I hit it,” Kinkade said of her solo shot, Herscher’s first hit of the day, immediately following Streator leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the first. “It felt really good. I just took the outside pitch to where it needed to go.

“We really came out with a lot of confidence, more confidence than we had yesterday. We were focusing less on what we couldn’t hit and more on what we could hit.”

In credit to its mental toughness, Streator immediately responded to the 11-run top of the third with a pair of runs in the bottom half on back-to-back RBI singles from Talty and Joyce Walkling and added another run in the fourth when Mya Zavada doubled and Ondrey singled her in. All of those runs were of the two-out variety.

It was, however, far too little and a little too late.

“Mistakes started happening, and they just kept happening,” fifth-year Streator coach Louis Ondrey said of the top of the third. “It was rough. It was rough. ...

“I think we came off the high of yesterday, knowing we hadn’t beaten Herscher in years, and everyone’s excited and thought we were just going to do it again. I tried telling them, you know, it’s going to be a different team. They’re going to come here and want it ... but, you know, we’ve had some positive things lately.

“Hopefully we just bounce back.”

Sophomore Lily Tucek (5 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 K) notched the complete game pitching win for Herscher. Whiteaker finished with two doubles and three RBIs – all coming in the third inning – Kinkade had two hits and two RBIs, Fritz drove in two, Abbie Overacker drove home one and leadoff hitter RyLyn Adams singled once and scored three runs.

Herscher is scheduled back in action Thursday at Watseka.

Streator heads to Fairbury on Saturday for a round-robin tri-header with Eureka and host Prairie Central.