Moments after her team lost to Mundelein 13-2 Monday, Lake Forest softball coach Susie Brugioni wasn’t critical of her players during her postgame speech.
First and foremost, she addressed the team’s chemistry, despite the fact the Scouts have only played three games this spring.
“Our girls are having a lot of fun out there,” Brugioni said. “Their heads are in the game, they’re communicating well, and you can tell from their body language they’re enjoying themselves and that they all get along.
“We have three seniors on our roster, and one of them is our starting left fielder Amy Wilson, who is out because of an injury the first game of the season. We also have three juniors and two sophomores — and we started four freshmen today. So we’re young and evolving.”
One of those freshmen is center fielder Jon’nah Williams, who went 2-for-3 against the Mustangs with a rocket double and a stolen base. In the bottom of the third inning, she collided with the center field fence while tracking a solo homer. She ran into the fence again — and nearly made an outstanding catch — two batters later.
“Once she has a little more time and experience at the varsity level, I think you’ll start to see her true potential shine,” Brugioni said. “She has tremendous physical skills, and the rest of the mental aspects will come with experience. The same goes for our other underclassmen. They’re all headed in the right direction.”
Senior Sarah Parker, who started on the mound for the Scouts while batting leadoff, smoked a pair of line drives that resulted in outs, yet kept a light-hearted attitude about her tough luck.
“It’s a little frustrating when you hit the ball that hard several times in a game and it doesn’t wind up being a hit, but that’s how it goes,” Parker said. “The next time I’m up, maybe I’ll have a bloop single and it will even itself out.”
Parker, who didn’t walk a batter and struck out four, instinctively tried to barehand a line drive that deflected off her pitching hand midway through the game. She was OK despite a small amount of redness on her palm,
“It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I think I just threw my hand up there and tried to knock it down,” Parker said.
The team’s other senior, Maggie Mack, belted a two-run homer to right-center in the fourth inning. It was the Scouts’ first longball of the year. Mack was also the only Lake Forest player to homer last season.
“I just try to put a short, quick swing on the ball, and that pitch was on the outer half of the plate, so I just went with it that direction,” Mack said.
She said she’s enjoying growing with, and mentoring, her younger teammates.
“I just try to help the younger players learn any way I can, and try to make them feel comfortable and let them know they belong at the varsity level,” Mack said. “I think that’s one of the things I’m most excited about this year. Knowing each game we’re going to keep improving and that a lot of the girls who are young now will be here for a long time, so by the time they’re seniors, their skills will have improved so much. I’m having a blast. Eventually, the wins will start coming, too.”
Froehlig is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @TFroehlig
