The plan may sound simple, but St. Charles North’s Julianna Kouba knows executing it sometimes can be easier said than done.
Not to worry.
With a bat in her hands, the junior third baseman has been making it look easy. She did it again Friday with the potential winning run at third base and no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“They were just saying to find my pitch to hit and figure out what would work best for the situation,” Kouba said of a meeting with coach Tom Poulin and two teammates, while South Elgin coach Brad Reynard was in a similar discussion with his pitcher and infielders.
“They were telling me the pressure was on the defense and they all believe in me no matter the outcome. I was thinking of hitting it on the ground to the right side but the opposite kind of happened because I was just a little early on it.”
The result was right on in the Class 4A Rolling Meadows Regional championship game for Kouba, who launched a blast that cleared the left field fence for her seventh home run of the season and helped cap the North Stars’ comeback from a 2-0 deficit for a 4-2 victory.
Top-seeded St. Charles North (23-2), which avenged a 5-0 loss last year to the Storm in the postseason, advanced to a 4:30 p.m. Tuesday semifinal in the Class 4A Bartlett Sectional against Fremd (18-7-1), a 5-1 winner over Conant.
All the scoring came in the final two innings on home runs, ending a 0-0 pitching duel through five innings between senior right-hander Abby Zawadzki and Kaidence Rumachik, her junior counterpart for ninth-seeded South Elgin (21-6).
Rumachik (6-4) stepped up after junior right-hander Jenna Sheehan strained her back in the Storm’s playoff opener, a 13-7 win over York.
“What a tough kid,” Poulin said of Rumachik. “She had us off-balance.”
Freshman shortstop Ava Lazare broke the ice for South Elgin with a two-run homer, her fifth of the season, that rode a breeze to right field. It scored freshman catcher Charlotte Rzenno, who had singled.
Zawadzki (12-0) led off the North Stars’ sixth with her 12th homer of the season, also to right field. That was promptly followed by a solo homer to left by junior outfielder Jordyn McBride, her fourth.
“Down 2-0, I was telling myself that I had to get on and make something happen, trying to use a two-strike approach,” said Zawadzki, who struck out four and scattered five hits and two walks but had to throw 119 pitches to South Elgin’s patient hitters.
“I knew it was a lot. I feel like I was fighting myself with the counts. That’s a really good lineup.”
Junior shortstop Ella Heimbuch, a Wisconsin commit, set the stage for Kouba with a single to lead off the seventh. She moved to second base on a throwing error to the infield.
Heimbuch then stole third base for Kouba, who also delivered with a double in the first inning that helped lift her season batting average to .466.
“Julianna came down looking nervous,” Poulin said of their meeting in the seventh. “I said, ‘Listen, you’re the hottest hitter in the state of Illinois.’ She really is. The last 10 games, she’s been on fire. I said, ‘The only one who should be nervous is standing in the circle.’
“It’s always tough against Brad and South Elgin. He calls a great game calling pitches. They’re a tough team, but a nine seed? Come on, they won 21 games.”
His team’s toughness battling back impressed Poulin the most.
“I’m proud of the resolve and mental toughness they had, down 2-0,” he said. “They were thinking, ‘We have to get two and tie it up. That’s how this story is gonna be written.’”
And the best chapter belonged to Kouba with her walk-off homer.
