Joe Gerace knew he was going to be a winner at least once Saturday, but the Wheaton Central softball coach was looking for a sweep.
Gerace`s team started his day off right with a 5-2 victory over Glenbard North in the first game of the Class AA Downers Grove South sectional. The Tigers (24-2) will meet Downers South (22-7), a 3-0 winner over Lockport in Saturday`s second game, at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the title game. The winner will advance to the state tournament quarterfinals Thursday in Pekin.
Gerace`s day got even better. After the game, he married Celeste Mazor. Glenbard North, a team the Tigers had beaten twice during the Du Page Valley Conference season, had him more concerned than the wedding.
”I`m not nervous about the wedding, I`ve got a winner there,” said Gerace, who scouted Downers South for four innings before leaving for his 5 p.m. wedding. ”I was nervous about Glenbard North. I`m happy, considering we were playing a team for the third time that has a tremendous coach and super kids. We made a couple of dumb plays, but the kids were a litle nervous at first. They wanted to win for me today.”
The wedding orginally was scheduled for July, but summer softball and speech activities prompted the move to June. Gerace and Mazor, both speech teachers, picked June 1 realizing there might be a conflict.
”I learned a long time ago never to count on anything like making the state tournament,” Gerace said. ”Last year, we were counting on going to state, but didn`t. This year, we`re taking things one at a time.
”This was a double-header win. I played Alfred Doolittle in `My Fair Lady`–you know, `Get Me to the Church on Time`–and the first thing I heard this morning was my assistant, Ron Mulhitch, singing it. I`m surprised it didn`t wake up all of north Wheaton.”
Wheaton Central, which scored all of its runs in the second inning, two on a single by Katie Meier, has a chance for a little revenge Monday. The Tigers were leading Downers South 2-1 going into the seventh during a regular- season game and lost 3-2.
Downers South advanced Saturday with the help of two errors and a wild pitch. The Mustangs got the only run they needed in the seventh when Angie Bloom scored from third on a wild pitch.
”I felt one run would do it,” said Downers South coach Gretchen Sauer.
”As the game went on, I was even more sure of it. I thought it might be an extra-inning game.”
Downers South`s Carol Jarosky and Lockport`s Leigh Podlesny each gave up just five hits and had opposing batters hitting the ball into the ground.
”I knew my left side of the infield (shortstop Val Hayes and third baseman Karen Schilling) was playing so well, it helped my confidence,”
Jarosky said. ”Heidi (catcher Heidi Cuda) was calling a good game and made them hit those ground balls. When that happens, it doesn`t put all the pressure on me. It`s not just me against the batters.”
