Yorkville pitcher Hannah Jaros had her riseball working Monday and Neuqua Valley’s hitters simply couldn’t get on top of it.
The result was seven infield pop outs and six fly outs by Neuqua as the junior right-hander’s rise led the Foxes to a 4-1 victory in a Class 4A Downers Grove South Regional quarterfinal in Naperville.
More Top Picks Best Neck And Shoulder Massagers For Pain
“When the riseball isn’t working it just stays flat, but when it’s working, it rises with speed,” Jaros said. “It’s better when it’s working and it was working for me.”
The 17th-seeded Foxes (14-20) advance to Tuesday’s regional semifinal against the top-seeded host Mustangs, while 16th-seeded Neuqua Valley (11-13) saw its season end.
The Wildcats struggled to score runs all season and Jaros’ rise had them stymied again, according to senior shortstop Julia Huebner.
“A lot of us were going up there trying to kill it,” Huebner said. “It wasn’t speed, it was spin.”
Jaros also struck out six.
“There’s not much else you can ask a pitcher to do,” Yorkville coach Jory Regnier said. “She wasn’t overthrowing any pitches and she got a lot of easy outs for our infield. She came out on a big stage and pitched a stellar game.”
Yorkville earned an 8-3 edge in hits behind shortstop Sydney Woodworth, who had three that included a double, an RBI single and a solo home run to lead off the game.
Woodworth drilled a 3-2 pitch from Julia Rainer over the left-field fence for her fifth homer.
“There’s nothing like breaking in a game like that,” Regnier said. “We rely on our leadoff hitters to be tone-setters and (Woodworth) got the rest of the team rolling.”
The Foxes scored twice in the second inning as Woodworth’s two-out single scored Ally Martin and Hannah Bazan. Neuqua got its lone run in the bottom of the second on a line drive up the middle by Rainer that scored Jessica Boudreau, who reached on a bloop single.
Rainer retired nine consecutive Foxes from the third through the fifth inning, but Yorkville scored a run on three hits in the sixth to close the scoring.
“She has carried our team throughout the entire season,” Huebner said of Rainer. “She has really been our go-to for any tough game. And our defense is always good, but our offense has struggled this year and it struggled (Monday).”
Jaros retired the Wildcats on an infield pop-up and two strikeouts to end the game.
“Our hitters made adjustments in the later innings to get on top of it, but they were getting under it throughout this game,” Neuqua coach Christina Frontera said. “Hitting has been a struggle for us so I hope our younger players coming back learn to stay aggressive at the plate.”
Neuqua graduates five seniors in Huebner, Boudreau, Danielle Ernest, Jordyn Diaz and Marissa Potter.
Yorkville knows that beating top-seeded Downers Grove South is a tall order, but the Foxes are ready for the challenge.
“We’ll keep our energy up and try to use the momentum from this game,” Woodworth said. “Our defense has been solid and we’ve struggled a little with our hitting, but (Monday) we were on.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.