St. Charles East’s Hannah Wulf will tell you she lives for games like these. And she’s not alone.
The senior pitcher enjoys seeing the stars come out from both dugouts and go head to head. The competitors’ blood gets pumping a little faster, adrenaline ready to go. It carries more meaning.
Such was the case Monday between two Illinois powerhouses with Marist traveling to St. Charles.
“They’re No. 1 but we’re three,” Wulf said, referring to the latest Illinois Coaches Association poll for Class 4A. “We’re not too far behind them. Anyone can beat anyone, any day.
“And yeah, they’re a great team, kudos to all those girls. They’re very talented but so are we.”
Wulf, a 5-foot-10 hard-throwing left-hander, had just come up on the short end of a 4-0 nonconference decision in her pitching duel with 5-10 junior right-hander Soleil Tate.
The matchup lived up to expectations with Tate, a Wisconsin commit, prevailing by throwing a four-hitter with 14 strikeouts, no walks and one hit batter for Marist (8-0).
Wulf, a Wheaton North transfer who’s committed to South Carolina, yielded seven hits with 10 strikeouts but issued four walks and hit two batters in going the distance for the Saints (7-2).
“I think the biggest difference was they had a couple clutch hits,” St. Charles East coach Jarod Gutesha said. “They scored all their runs with two outs. Good teams will obviously do that.”
The stars were definitely out.
Marist’s lineup includes junior first baseman Layla Peters (Notre Dame), junior catcher Lexi Kyros (Michigan) and senior second baseman Ellie Holmstrom (Saint Louis).
St. Charles East counters with senior catcher Hayden Sujack, another South Carolina recruit.
Doing the most damage for Marist, however, were sophomore center fielder Maddie Rogers with a two-run double and freshman designated hitter Savannah Jones with a pair of RBI doubles from the No. 8 spot in the batting order.
“That’s what makes a game like this so fun,” said Sujack, a .586 hitter who came through with a double and a single. “You never know what’s going to happen.
“We’ve played them all four years. Tate is fantastic, Kyros does a great job of framing, and you can tell the coaches have experience. It looks like they have great camaraderie — like they’re all best friends. I think that’s a quality our team has, too.”
Wulf and Sujack, longtime summer teammates with the Wasco Diamonds one year and Chicago Cheetahs the past three, are united in high school for the first time and are also loving it.
“She knows me inside and out,” Wulf said of Sujack. “It definitely helps a lot to have her back there. Obviously, we’ll play in college together.
“It’s so different to have my best friend play with me, especially my senior year.”
Wulf certainly wasn’t happy with her control.
“Those walks certainly can’t happen,” she said. “The big names didn’t affect me. I try to get each hitter out individually, try to beat every hitter no matter what their name is.
“Obviously, they’re good hitters, but we have big names, too. In college, I’ll be facing girls with those names and even bigger. I’m gonna have to get there eventually.”
Sometimes, as well, the pressure is on Sujack.
“I call the pitches,” Sujack said. “They get a hit and I’m like, ‘My bad.’ I’m just trying to help her best I can. I’m glad we have this great relationship, but I’ll tell her, ‘Just throw, keep it simple.’”
Gutesha thought Wulf battled well.
“She got some big outs against some good hitters and our defense played well behind her,” he said. “We lost, but we don’t need to hang our heads. We did a lot of good things.”
