It had been a while but South Elgin senior Demi Queen remembered how to take a casual jog around the bases.
“That’s the first home run I’ve hit since my freshman year,” Queen said. “I just saw a pitch I liked and swung on it.”
Queen’s sixth-inning, two-run blast stayed just inside the foul pole in left field, adding an exclamation point on a fine day of hitting for the Storm.
South Elgin won 13-7 over Palatine in a season opener for both teams at The Dome in Rosemont.
The Storm graduated a large stable of seniors from last year’s team but coach Stephanie Katzenberger saw promise in a new legion of varsity hitters during the preseason.
Preseason hitting doesn’t always tell the whole truth, however.
“It can look great in the (batting) cage but I needed to see if what I was seeing would translate in a game,” Katzenberger said. “For some of them, it really did. I wondered if some of them could do it against a pitcher and now I know they can.
“I was just happy with the hitting. Honestly, I’m even more excited this season than I was last season as a first-year coach.”
South Elgin (1-0) trailed 1-0 before scoring three times with two outs in the bottom of a second inning that included an RBI double from Taylor Ford and an RBI single from Queen. Queen finished with three RBIs on two hits while Ford, Alexa Rogalla and Stacy Bellack had a pair of hits apiece.
Ford also had three RBIs as South Elgin earned an 11-10 edge in hits over Palatine and only struck out twice. “We can hit,” Ford said. “If we continue to do that, we’ll be in good shape. We work hard on our hitting.”
Palatine (0-1) scored three runs off of starting Storm pitcher Karli Dobler to start the third inning but South’s Stacy Bellack doubled to score Rogalla in the bottom half, tying the game at 4-4.
The Storm scored four runs in the fourth inning and five in the sixth in building a 13-5 lead before Palatine scored twice in the seventh for the game’s final runs.
Rachel Weiss took over for Dobler in the fifth inning and Annamae Valdivia pitched the Storm’s seventh inning. Allison Kaiser will be the Storm’s No. 2 pitcher behind Dobler this season.
And while South Elgin’s four pitchers sort out their roles, their hitters are breaking fast from the gate.
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“I’m not a morning person and (Queen) texted me at six this morning. She hit last night and texted me about some of the things she wants to adjust,” Katzenberger said. “I woke up to a text from her, talking about her hitting. So their heads are definitely in it.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance writer.