Lincoln-Way Central junior Kayley Kmak will long remember the first home run of her varsity career.
It came with two outs in the seventh inning Monday and lifted the Knights to a 5-5 tie against Marist.
Her first revelation, about the emotion she felt when she went up to hit, was pretty typical.
“I was a little nervous but I knew I had to do it,” Kmak said. “I had to come up in a big situation and do it for my girls.
“They had been behind me the whole way. I wanted to do it for them.”
The second revelation, about whether it was her biggest home run, was a real stunner.
“It was the first home run I ever hit in my life,” Kmak said, smiling. “I didn’t know at first that it was gone, but after I heard the team start cheering, I felt really good.”
The game was stopped due to darkness after nine innings, with the two teams still tied at 5-5.
Alexis Youngren also homered for Lincoln-Way Central (4-1-1). Kmak, a center fielder, added an RBI single and senior right-hander Lyndsey Grein went the distance, striking out nine.
Eileen Donahue and Isabel Cunnea both homered for Marist (3-0-1). Brooke McNichols struck out 19.
It was a rematch of last season’s Class 4A state championship game, won by the RedHawks 3-1.
Kmak was on the roster for Lincoln-Way Central, having been brought up for the state playoffs to be a pinch runner.
Knights coach Jeff Tarala is still sorting out where Kmak will hit in the lineup.
She was in the No. 9 spot Monday because …
“To tell you the truth, there was no reason,” Tarala said. “She’s hit No. 2 this season as well. We’re just trying to figure a lot out. We have some constants with some of our seniors, but we graduated a lot. Now, it’s kind of doing a puzzle.
“Kayla is a contact hitter. She does a good job putting the bat on the ball. Today, she came through with the big hit.”
Kmak wasn’t the only hero.
Marist trailed 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth when Donahue delivered a two-out, three-run homer.
It was Donahue’s first of the season and came after a pretty rigorous pregame batting session, with RedHawks coach Colleen Phelan doing the tossing.
“I fixed something in my stance which helped,” Donahue said. “I noticed it a game against Huntley and in our practice. So on Sunday, my dad and I were working on my hitting and it worked.
“It felt real good to hit this one. I wasn’t doing anything for myself out there. I wanted to get those runs for our team.”
It was a roller-coaster day pitching for McNichols. The senior right-hander struck out every batter in Lincoln-Way Central’s order at least once and had eight strikeouts in the final three innings.
“I don’t know why but I always feel stronger at the end than I do in the beginning,” McNichols said. “Maybe I was heating up the whole game, but I always want to finish better than I start.
“Two bad pitches were all it took to hurt me, though. But that’s going to happen. It’s fixable.”
McNichols actually had a third pitch she would probably like back. It led to the strangest play of the game.
Grein appeared to hit a two-run homer for the Knights with two outs in the top of the fifth. But after she rounded third, Tarala stopped Grein and told her to go back and tag the base again.
Tarala was called for coach interference and both runs were negated.
Did Grein actually miss third?
“It looked like it to me,” Tarala said. “Whether she missed it or not, I don’t know now. In the emotion of the situation, I gave her a little push on her shoulder to go back and touch the base.
“Obviously, that’s coach’s interference, so they took the two runs off the board. That’s my fault. My mistake.”