IHSSN Travels to the Rockridge Invitational
Saturday (3/27/10)
Andalusia, IL (Lion's Park)
After my 4:30 wakeup call, the first thing that was on my mind (besides my awful gas station coffee), was the planning out of my return to bed. Upon arriving to work, and getting that work mojo in my system, there was no going back to bed, for there was a bevy of baseball and softball in my itinerary.
Around 7:30, my work for the morning finished, I planned my day. First was a drive up north near the Quad Cities, to the tiny town of Andalusia (pop: 1,100). The town best known for SnowStar, the skiing resort outside of town. The Rockridge Softball Invitational was split into two locales, one being here in Andalusia at Lion's Park, the other at Rockridge High School in Edgington.
It had been nearly two decades since I had been to Andalusia. A cousin's grandmother lived along the Mississippi River in the town, and many summer days we would make the trek to go swimming (in a pool, not the river). It may have been this very Lion's Park that we would meander to on a summer afternoon. I am almost positive that the gas station I stopped at was the one we walk several blocks to for our sugar rush after a long swim.
Again, with my many Garmin misadventures, the not-so-confident GPS guided me down Andalusia Road. With 0.2 miles until the supposed Lion's Park location, I began to question that computerized lady talking back at me like I was some rogue GPS disobeyer.
Over the years, traveling to far off places that most Illinoisans have never heard of in their own state, no Garmin has had the amount of success in finding high schools, and ball diamond, than that of the friendly middle-aged woman standing behind the counter of a Casey's General Store.
Again, Mrs. Casey's Cashier came through, correctly directing me to Lion's Park in Andalusia without the annoying, "RECALCULATING" reverberating in my head. After a quick fill-up, I headed west two blocks, and another block north, just in time for the first pitch.
The matchup was small-school United, the defending Class 1A runners-up in softball the past two seasons (with EVERY single starter back this year), against large-school (3A) Rock Island. Katie Bertelsen, who I will be waxing poetic about for the next three months, is the ace pitcher of the Red Storm. Leanne Serrano, starts for the Rocks this morning.
Game time temperature is 38 degrees amid cloudy skies, in other words....frigid. Fortunately, being a road warrior, you can find just about anything in my trusty 2001 Ford Explorer, including a myriad of hooded sweatshirts. Over my long-sleeve Chicago Cubs shirt, I added another layer, choosing the B-PC/A Spartans football playoff hoody over the Loyola University hoody. I decided to rough it, and declined to wear the Monmouth College stocking hat, leaving my ears open to the brisk light breeze.
Fortunately, there was just a subtle breeze, and the peaks of the sun that teased us over the next hour, felt great. Surprisingly, as wimpy as I am in sub-60 degree weather, I was quite proud that I didn't head back to the car to head the hand warmers.
Bertelsen got off to a slow start, and in my opinion, was not very sharp in this outing against Rock Island. She allowed a leadoff base hit to leftfield on a 2-2 count. She threw many strikes, but missed the strike zone quite a bit throughout the game, but also had a pretty tight zone to work with. She struck out two of the first four batters, and finished (according to my stats) with 12 K's.
With the pitching distance being moved back to 43' over 40', it has certainly benefited the hitters statewide, even against a top pitcher like Bertelsen. Over the course of 2009, she averaged 15 strikeouts/game. Through four games, she is averaging 13.5 strikeouts/game. She has also allowed several hits this year, where last year, no-hitters for her, were commonplace.
The bottom of the 2nd inning was when the only scoring occurred. United's Rachel Kenney poked a blast over the rightfield fence (200'). There was a bit of confusion at first, as the Rock Island Rightfielder held her hands up, signifying a ground-rule double. At first, it was believed that the ball went UNDER the fence, however, upon asking the outfielder, she did clarify it was a home run, it went OVER. The next Red Storm batter was Augusta Chandler, who stroke a basehit to the edge of the infield. She advanced to third, when Katie Kaywood reached on an error to the pitcher. Chandler would score when Alex Fell popped out to leftfield, giving United the 2-0 lead, and the eventual final score.
Both the 3rd and 4th innings were 1-2-3 for both teams. Rock Island had one batter reach on a hit-by-pitch in the 5th, while United went down in three straight appearances in the bottom of the frame. Both teams sat down in order in the 6th.
In total, three softballs were lost on foul balls in the creek that flows alongside Lion's Park. Some fast-acting fans were able to save two more that stopped just shy of the waterbed. The game lasted a mere 1 hour 11 minutes, giving me a little bit of time to catch most of the first game of the season opening doubleheader for the Monmouth-Roseville Titans baseball team at Sunnylane Field back in Monmouth. More on that to come.
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