1998 KANELAND SOFTBALL

Review the 1997 Kaneland Softball Season

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Head Coach: Dennis Hansen

Last Year: 2-27

Outlook: "We're real young and inexperienced," head coach Dennis Hansen says about the new team that has only two players returning from last years team.

Junior leftfielder Mandy Piscitelli returns to lead the young team that could prove to make some noise in the predominately double A conference.

"Mandy is probably going to be one of our leaders," Hansen said.

Hansen has slated one of the team's youngest members, freshman Sarah Goedken, to take on most of the team's pitching responsibilities.

Sophomore Megan Gemmer will complete the team's battery at catcher, and junior outfielder Jen Schmidt has shown promise at the plate.

"Megan is a good new addition and Jen Schmidt has been hitting the ball real well," Hansen commented.

The team will have a tough schedule, with powerful teams such as Morris, Minooka, Plainfield and Geneva in their conference.

"We are in a good softball conference. They are some of the top double A teams in the state," Hansen said.

The Lady Knights' strategy is to use their defense to keep the score close and try to scrap out some victories that will take a total team effort every game.

"We need to be competitive day in and day out. We need to be in ballgames to get a chance to win. . . Hopefully, we'll be competitive and constantly improving," Hansen said.

Varsity Softball

Sandwhich 10, Kaneland 0

Sarah Conley had Kaneland's lone hit against Beth Boss of Sandwich turned in another strong pitching performance to lead the Indians to their third win of the season. Boss struck out 14 of Kaneland's 18 batters she faced, while walking none and giving up just one hit in six innings.

At the plate, Sandwich rapped out 15 hits. Sandwich broke open a 2-0 game with four runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth inning. The win gives Sandwich a 3-1 record, while Kaneland is 0-1.

Kaneland 6, Lisle4
Lisle 5, Kaneland 1

Kanland won the frontend of a double header with Lisle 6-4, for their first win of the year and then took it on chin in the nightcap 5-1.

Yorkville 10, Kaneland 0
Yorkville 16, Kaneland 3

The Foxes won a pair of five inning contests at home. Yorkville scored ten runs on just five hits in the first game, benefitting from eight Kaneland errors. Kaneland managed 4 hits.

Then Foxes scored 5 runs in the first and third innings in the second game. Kaneland scored single runs in the each of the first three innings, with RBI's by Sarah Conley, Rachel Hahn and Mandy Piscitelli.

The Knights are 1-4 for the season and 0-2 in the conference.

Minooka 10, Kaneland 0

The Lady Knights trailed by just a run going into the fourth inning, but Minooka started to find some open grass and scored 9 runs in next three innings. Only Megan Gemmer, Mandy Piscitelli and Stacey Testin managed to get hits for the Knights who committed 6 errors.

"We played well until the 4th inning," said coach Dennis Hansen. "We fell apart defensively in that inning. Sarah Goedken pitched very well."

"We continue to progress a little each game."

1997 SOFTBALL AWARDS & RECORDS

1st team all-conference: Kim Washburn.

Honorable mention all-conference: Janelle Frye and Melissa Gehrke.

Batting Champian: Kim Wahburn .469

Highest fielding percentage: Melissa Gehrke and Janelle Frye .977

New Kaneland stolen base record: Kim Washburn 38.

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