Hannah Harms didn’t get mad. The South Elgin sophomore simply went to work and made herself better.
Harms wasn’t happy last year when she made the program’s JV II team, only to have her freshman season canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s the lowest of the three teams we have,” Harms said. “I was disappointed.”
It’s why Harms, who has played softball since she was 5 and travel ball since she was 8, went to work in the weight room.
“I really wanted to step up my game,” Harms said. “Come out to show the coaches I deserve to be playing on varsity.”
That’s just what she’s done.
The 5-foot-4 Harms is one of the smallest players on coach Brad Reynard’s team.
She walked softly but carried a big stick Monday, laying down a sacrifice bunt and then belting a pair of two-run homers to nearly the same spot over the fence in center field to secure a 7-1 win over Glenbard South.
“The second one seemed like I hit it harder,” Harms said. “I felt like the first one I didn’t get it as good. The first one was an inside pitch and the second one was right there like a meatball.”
It leaves South Elgin (17-5, 14-1) poised to grab a third straight Upstate Eight Conference title. The Storm need just one win in their three remaining games since Bartlett and Glenbard South both trail by three with four losses each.
Harms’ hitting support boosted sophomore pitcher Cecelia Bell (9-1), who fired a three-hitter with three strikeouts and two walks.
Back-to-back doubles in the third inning that reached the fence on one bounce by both Sammy Jimenez and Quinn Kamarauskas highlighted a three-run outburst by South Elgin.
The rally erased a 1-0 lead for Glenbard South (14-8, 13-4) that was aided by an infield error.
“My offense definitely backed me up,” said Bell, whose curve and change-up kept the Raiders off-balance.
Harms’ home runs, giving her seven for the season, came in the fifth and seventh innings.
“She is a strong kid,” Bell said of Harms. “She can hit over the fence. Teams don’t expect it, but she can. She can hit it over, bunt, get base hits. She can do it all.”
Reynard, who didn’t know much about her game until this season, said Harms was “tearing it up” until being one of seven Storm players handed a two-week layoff due to COVID-19 tracing.
Monday was her third game back.
“You have your big boppers, but then you’ve got kids that just have crazy pop, and that’s her,” Reynard said. “She’s an athlete. She’s a workout freak. She’s got all the tools.”
Getting ready: St. Charles East will wrap up the regular season Saturday with a home triangular that includes Marist (25-1) and Barrington (26-0) as well as Rolling Meadows (6-19).
The first two have not lost to a team from Illinois. Marist’s only setback was to an Indiana team.
Those three come in after a week that featured eight games in six days for the Saints, including dates with Huntley (24-6), Harlem (18-8) and Warren (15-5).
Did he have a hand in making the schedule?
“Absolutely,” St. Charles East coach Jarod Gutesha said. “We did the exact same thing in 2019.”
That season, the Saints finished second in Class 3A on a 1-0 loss to Huntley.
“You play as many good people as you can to prepare for the postseason,” Gutesha said.
The playoffs: Schedules were posted Monday on the Illinois High School Association website for playoffs that begin next week in four classes. Through sectionals, games will be played at the higher-seeded team’s site.
Yorkville and St. Charles East are the top seeds in respective sectionals. Jacobs, Kaneland and Newark are top seeds in respective sub-sectionals.