Softball: Paige Murray, Julianna Kouba lead St. Charles North to win over Lake Park

ROSELLE — Julianna Kouba ended up leaving Wednesday’s game with more than one reason to celebrate.

The St. Charles North freshman, who was celebrating her 15th birthday, went 2 for 4 at the plate and drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning to help the North Stars to a 6-4 victory over Lake Park.

With the score tied at 4-4 to start the seventh, St. Charles North’s Maddie Hernandez led off the inning with a triple, which bought Kouba up to the plate. The freshman hit a hard ground ball to second base that ended with her getting out, but gave the North Stars a 5-4 lead.

“It felt amazing, I was so happy,” Kouba said. “I was jumping even before I got to first base. It was just so awesome, especially in my first game here. We needed to win that game for our pitcher and everyone else. So as soon as that ball came, I took it and I was ecstatic.”

Skyla Ritter added an insurance run in the inning after lacing a single to left to score Ivy Gleeson to make it 6-4.

The lead was more than enough for St. Charles North pitcher Paige Murray. The junior struck out two of the final four batters that she faced, including Ava Arenz to end the game and got Murray to 10 strikeouts for the fifth time this season.

“We definitely had the momentum heading into that last inning, which helped me a lot,” Murray said. “My team was behind me and everyone was so supportive on the field. And I just wanted to get out there and get ahead in the count and hit my spots.”

North head coach Tom Poulin said that for Murray to get double-digit strikeouts against a line up like Lake Park’s was an impressive achievement for the junior.

“That lineup is probably as good as anything you’re going to see,” Poulin said. “To get to 10 strikeouts against them, I mean, come on. This is DuKane softball. Trot a couple teams out there and it’s going to be a classic.”

After taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning thanks to an RBI double by Haley Nelson, the North Stars (10-2, 4-2 DuKane conference) looked to be cruising through the innings on defense.

However in the bottom of the third, Lake Park coach Lynsey Gunnells challenged what would have been the final out of the inning, saying that first baseman Addy Zawadski didn’t have her foot on the bag. After the umpires convened, they determined that the runner was indeed safe at first, extending the inning.

The overturned call was all the Lancers (12-2, 5-1) needed to get some runs on the board. Arenz tied the game with an RBI double to score Ari O’Connell from first, and Kylie Pytlak followed with a two-run homer to center field to give the Lancers a 3-1 lead.

“That was awesome,” Gunnells said. “As a rookie head coach, that was the first call that got overturned in my favor. And the best part was that my team had my back.”

Their lead wouldn’t last for long, though. In the very next inning, the North Stars grabbed three more runs, all unearned, to give them a 4-3 lead. The Lancers tied it up once again in the bottom of the fifth after O’Connell hit a solo blast to centerfield.

Poulin said that his girls showed great amounts of grit to overcome adversities they encountered throughout the game, especially after the third inning.

“Everybody you encounter in this league, it requires a tough gritty performance,” Poulin said. “We had to overcome a two-run deficit to probably one of the best teams we’re going to see all year. And it was just a great performance from our girls.”

Despite losing its first conference game of the season, Gunnells said that she thinks that the Lancers learned more from this game than they have in their first 13 games of the season.

“Overall, there are definitely some things we could work on,” Gunnells said. “St. Charles North is always awesome. We have this little rivalry, and it’s always fun. We let the emotions get the best of us, but that pitcher kept us off-balanced and their defense backed it up, so kudos to them.”