Softball: Minooka’s big bats break in Yorkville’s new turf field, 11-3

YORKVILLE - Minooka improved to 8-1-1 on the season after an 11-3 victory to spoil the grand opening of Yorkville’s all-turf softball field.

Junior Mayson Carr went 4 for 4 with three doubles and four RBIs to lead Minooka, which has scored 72 runs during its seven-game win streak. Thirty-four have come in the last three games.

Senior pitcher Taylor Mackin went the distance in the circle, allowing only three runs on six hits and punching out six batters.

“As a team, we have stuck together this whole time with a great team atmosphere, and everyone is pulling the same weight,” Carr said.

The Foxes’ new field features a synthetic playing ground that will endure weather conditions, allowing fewer cancellations and more play. The field also features bullpens, batting cages and a new press box.

Yorkville athletic director Luke Engelhardt is excited about the future of the new field.

“In this facility, we focused on all the details,” Engelhardt said. " When you have the opportunity, you want to do something right. I think when it’s all said and done, we will be, I hope, a permanent site for postseason events and have Yorkville be a model for this sport.”

The game started out a back-and-forth contest.

In the top of the second, Carr’s first of three doubles drove in the first two runs of the evening. In the bottom half of the inning, though, the Foxes had the bases loaded. A combination of base hits from senior Sarah Carlson and Regan Bishop and a walk from junior Bella Phillips evened the score at 2-2 at the end of inning two.

A strikeout from Mackin in the bottom of the fourth to end the inning quieted the Foxes offense for the remainder of the game, as Minooka’s defense added to Mackin’s outing.

“That’s the recipe,” Minooka coach Mark Brown said. ”Get good pitching, good defense, and when you’re hitting the ball like we’re hitting it right now, we’re pretty much tough to beat.”

Sophomore Jaelle Hamilton added another two RBIs on her two-out double. After working the count, she broke through, extending the lead to 8-2.

Minooka added three more to the top of the seventh after Yorkville made a pitching change in the sixth from senior Elle Fox, who had six strikeouts in her outing, to junior Peyton Levine.

Brown’s team is off to its best start since the 2021-22 season when it started 7-2-1. The conclusion of tomorrow’s game at Sandburg will be its fourth game in a row, and next week Minooka is scheduled to play six games in five days, with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 20.

“I mean, I think we go down to state and win it. I think we have that potential,” Carr said.

The Foxes, who are 7-5, will play a doubleheader Saturday. They will then play six games in eight days as teams make up the early-season rainouts.