Dakota Ward took an optimistic viewpoint.
“At least it wasn’t raining,” the senior said.
On a chilly Friday with a strong wind whipping in from left field, the ball wasn’t carrying in Hanover Central’s Greater South Shore Conference home game against Wheeler.
But Ward managed to overcome the elements.
She lined a double to right-center field with two outs in the fourth inning to drive in the only earned run, propelling the Wildcats to a 3-2 win over the Bearcats.
Ward credited classmate Skylar Barnett for calling out an inside pitch. She had struck out looking on three pitches in her first at-bat in the second.
“I needed to redeem myself,” Ward said. “It’s harder to move and harder to react when it’s like this. Especially since it was so warm a couple of days ago, it hits you. But it wasn’t too bad.”
Marley Hanlon outdueled Julia Taylor as Hanover Central (11-0, 6-0) claimed sole possession of first place in the conference, a game ahead of Wheeler (8-3, 5-1). Each pitcher allowed two unearned runs before the decisive run.
Hanlon (11-0), who also drew a one-out walk to start the Wildcats’ rally in the fourth, threw a one-hitter. The UIC recruit allowed only Julia Lewis’ fourth-inning RBI single, with six strikeouts and no walks.
Hanlon impressed Hanover coach Amanda Suarez.
“Marley threw very well,” Suarez said. “She kept the ball low, she was hitting her spots. It’s hard. You can pitch in the cold at the beginning of the year because that’s what you’re doing every day in practice. But to jump from warm back to cold, that’s a big transition. It was probably a 10- or 15-degree difference (from Thursday). She adjusted very well.”
Taylor allowed four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. Wheeler coach Maggie O’Shea lamented errors in the first and third innings behind the senior that led to the first two runs.
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“I have to give it up to my pitcher,” O’Shea said. “She pitched an excellent, excellent game against some very good hitters. They’re a great squad and she did what she had to do.”
Hanover hadn’t scored fewer than six runs in a game and has six games with at least 11 runs. Barnett went 2-for-3 with two runs and Alyssa Gill had an RBI single in the first.
“Anybody who was here or reads the box score, it’s no secret we didn’t look as strong at the plate as we have,” Suarez said. “But she’s a great pitcher, you can’t take that away from her at all. She kept us on our toes. We misread her a few times, but the few hits we had were key and we pulled through.
“It’s one you learn from, say a win’s a win and you move on. They’re a good team, a young team that’s going to be strong in the future, and they have a great pitcher.”
Wheeler scored two unearned runs in the fourth as Hanover committed two errors before the Wildcats responded with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning.
“First we had an ‘oh, crap’ moment,” Ward said. “But Marley was, like, ‘It’s a new game, don’t worry about it.’ And we came back.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff