Marley Hanlon understood why she didn’t pitch Tuesday.
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Hanover Central was taking things one step at a time.
The Wildcats accomplished their first goal on Monday, clinching the Greater South Shore Conference title with a win against Lake Station.
Even though they played fellow Class 3A power and potential sectional opponent Kankakee Valley on Tuesday, the junior left-hander was held out.
With their second goal of an undefeated conference record on the line Wednesday at Whiting, Hanlon was back in the circle.
And she didn’t surrender an earned run in Hanover Central’s 15-4 win against the Oilers.
“Going undefeated in the conference is a great accomplishment,” Hanlon said. “I’m really proud of us. We worked hard to get to it.
“I wasn’t overanxious after not pitching. I just came out here to do my job. I was spinning the ball a lot more. It moved a lot more than it has been lately.”
Hanlon allowed four unearned runs on four hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks, and by all rights her line should have been better. Whiting (14-8, 9-7) had just a leadoff single in the third through 5 1/3 innings of a game Hanover Central (24-4, 16-0) led 13-0. But back-to-back one-out errors by the Wildcats and three straight two-out hits by the Oilers netted four runs.
Hanlon worked a perfect seventh, including two strikeouts to end the game.
“I had a little rough stretch there in the sixth, but going back out in the seventh, I said, ‘Hey, you can’t think you won it,'” Hanlon said. “We thought that the last inning and it didn’t work. We just had to go 110 percent.”
Hanover Central had defeated Whiting 3-1 on May 2, with Hanlon pitching a five-hitter with 10 strikeouts and one walk.
“Marley did a great job again,” Whiting coach Kelly Morando said.
Hanlon also had three hits, as did Alexis Mokos and Kylee Gill. The Wildcats amassed 21.
“It was a good day,” said Hanover Central coach Amanda Suarez, who started substituting in the middle innings. “We hit the ball, we put up runs. Going undefeated in the conference, you can’t ask for more than that. They did exactly what we asked them to do.
“We made some mistakes late, but you learn from it. Hopefully we got it out of our system for sectionals.”
Whiting was missing three starters because of injury, including pitcher Courtney Blackwell. The Oilers started junior varsity pitcher Ariana Adam, a freshman.
“She did a great job,” Morando said. “She did more than I could’ve expected.
“We finally started hitting when our backs were against the wall, but obviously we put ourselves in too big of a hole.”
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