Hopefully, the weather forecast for Saturday — calling for rain throughout Lake County all day — will be wrong because it is a big day for Zion-Benton softball, and also for Gigi’s Playhouse.
This is year two for Tina Meyer as varsity coach at Zion-Benton and the program’s first fundraising effort on her watch is an important one.
According to the group’s website, Gigi’s Playhouse in McHenry is a learning center that serves children and adults with Down syndrome. Each Playhouse provides educational and therapeutic programs at no charge to families; and in a format that persons with Down syndrome learn best. All programs aim to maximize self-confidence and empower individuals to achieve their greatest potential.
The Gigi’s Playhouse in McHenry is the closest facility to Lake County and appropriately, Zion-Benton’s softball team on Saturday will be hosting McHenry.
The freshman game will be at 9 a.m., the junior varsity game at 11, and the varsity contest at 1 p.m. Zion and McHenry both are traditional softball powers, so the quality of ball in the varsity game will be high.
Meyer wrote in an email that this event “is a way to bring teams together for a great cause. This will be our first event doing a fundraiser, so I’m hoping we get a good crowd out to raise money for Gigi’s.”
In addition to the $2 admission fee to watch the games, there will be concessions and other fundraising opportunities such as a raffle.
Zion (13-6) has won three recent games by a combined score of 47-14 and it plays an entertaining brand of softball with a lot of hitting. McHenry had an 11-4 record and also was scoring runs at a double-digit pace in recent games.
Also coming for Zion is a big Tuesday game at home against Warren. Zion lost 4-3 to the Blue Devils earlier this month, and that is the closest Warren has come to losing a game to a team from Illinois all season. Warren is 18-1 and Zion could be the biggest obstacle remaining between the Blue Devils and a perfect regular season against Illinois teams.
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Girls track
There was something for just about everyone in the District 117 Invitational hosted by Lakes and Antioch.
Lakes won the team title in the 10-team meet, followed by Grayslake Central, Mundelein and Zion-Benton. Antioch was sixth, Grayslake North seventh and Waukegan eighth.
Zion dominated the throws, with Raven Morris winning the shot put (35-0.5) and Jalah Morris winning the discus (115-03). The Bees’ other individual winner was Kaeshayla Barnett in the 200 (27.13).
Waukegan’s Sasha Williams won the triple jump (32-8.75) but star Cheyenne White was second to Grayslake Central star Alexa Schmitt in the long jump. Schmitt won with 17-1 and White did 16-11.
Grayslake Central’s Sara O’Malley won the 800 (2:29.62) and Schmitt won the 300 hurdles (47.46).
Mundelein’s Katie Stanczykiewicz won the high jump (5-2), and the Mustangs won the 3,200 relay.
Lakes’ winners included Taylor Tilmon in the 100 (12.13), Erica Terry in the 400 (62.0), Kortney Schardt in the 1,600 (5:23.11) and 3,200 (11:35.57), and Maeve Tuley in the pole vault (9-3).
Grayslake North’s Allie O’Connell won the 100 hurdles (15.42).
Softball
For the first time in the history of four-class softball, Carmel is playing 3A this spring, and the timing couldn’t be better.
When the Corsairs beat St. Viator 12-2 this week, they improved to 15-2 on the season, with one of the losses to 4A state power Warren.
Baseball
Mundelein is in total command of the North Suburban Lake title race.
Currently, the Mustangs are 4-0 in the division and have swept two-game series from Warren (4-2) and Lake Forest (4-2).
Lake Zurich is 3-3, Libertyville 2-4, Stevenson 1-3 and Zion-Benton 0-4.
In the North Suburban Prairie, it appears to be a three-team race among Grant, Lakes and Wauconda. Those teams all went 4-0 in early-season division play. Vernon Hill is 4-2 with a pair of losses to Lakes.