Weather helps Waubonsie Valley survive scare from Geneva

A second lightning delay that was followed by a downpour in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday helped Waubonsie Valley secure a 6-4 win in the Class 4A Geneva Regional semifinals.

Warriors coach Valerie Wood was almost apologetic after the game was called with a Vikings runner at second base and the potential tying run coming to bat.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Wood, a first-year varsity coach. “I’ve never been in this situation before. It’s definitely a strange way to end the game.”

By rule, the game reverts back to the last completed inning and since the teams had completed six of a scheduled seven, it is considered a completed game.

It gave Waubonsie Valley (27-7) a school record for wins and advances the fifth-seeded Warriors to Saturday’s 11 a.m. title game against the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between fourth-seeded Naperville Central and 13th-seeded Oswego.

“I can’t think of a worse way to lose, but rules are rules and we have to abide by them,” said disappointed Geneva coach Greg Dierks, whose 11th-seeded Vikings end the season 21-13.

“Waubonsie had a nice inning to get ahead and with the weather being dicey, to have the lead is important. And they earned it by being the home team by having the better seed. They earned it and all that stuff is in their favor.”

Still, his young team that featured four freshmen in the starting lineup had reason to be proud.

The Warriors struck for three runs in the bottom of the first inning on RBI singles from Melaina Koulos and Amanda Lack, followed by a sacrifice fly from winning pitcher Shannon Hohman (17-5).

Geneva closed to within 3-2 in the third when junior shortstop Anna Geary homered off the foul pole down the left-field line.

“I heard it hit it,” Geary said of her third homer of the season. “That was pretty exciting and gave us some good momentum.”

An angry Hohman answered with a monster solo shot of her own to right-center in the bottom of the third off sophomore Emily Plocynski, who had replaced sophomore starter Rachel Fanella just one batter into the second. Fanella had pitched well against the Warriors in a 6-5 loss in April.

Hohman’s homer was her eighth of the season.

Geneva freshman Kaitlyn Plocinski opened the top of the sixth with a double and freshman Annika Radabaugh followed with her 11th home run to tie it 4-4.

Waubonsie used a hit batter, bunt single and infield error to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth and Hohman followed with a double off the fence in center for an insurance run and her third RBI.

“I was throwing pretty hard but there were those mistakes and they hit them and they hit them hard,” Hohman said of the two home runs she gave up.

“Luckily, my bat came alive. I put my team in a tough position and I like to come back and help get runs across. We were hitting the ball hard but it worked in our favor.”