Softball: April 2008 Archives

The IHSA held its softball seed meeting for Class 3A/4A on Wednesday night. Naperville Central led local teams with a No. 4 seed, while Benet and Naperville North rounded out the top ten at No. 9 and 10, respectively. Here's the complete list according to our sources:

1. Plainfield Central
2. Lockport*
3. Downers Grove South
4. Naperville Central
5. West Aurora*
6. Plainfield South
7. Wheaton South
8. Hinsdale South
9. Benet
10. Naperville North
11. Neuqua Valley *
12. Downers Grove North
13. Plainfield North
14. Hinsdale Central*
15. Bolingbrook
16. Oswego East
17. Romeoville
18. Waubonsie Valley
19. East Aurora

Regional pairings will be announced this Friday at the IHSA website. What do you think about the seeds? Are any of the teams seeded too high? Too low?

Trying to find conference standings in just about any sport, save football, can be incredibly frustrating. The DuPage Valley and Upstate Eight Conferences should take a cue from the East Suburban Catholic and maintain a working web page that is frequently updated with scores and all-conference lists. But I guess that's just wishful thinking on my part ...

Anyways, I wanted to get a better idea of where our teams stood in their respective conference races and after some digging around, here's what I came up with. Keep in mind this may not be a hundred percent accurate (games get cancelled, scores aren't reported, etc.) but it should give some idea where our team's stand. And right now, Central and Benet are in the best positions to make some noise.

The Neuqua Valley softball team had its chances against No. 2 Lake Park in a 9-4 loss Wednesday, but the Wildcats couldn't get enough clutch hits to beat the undefeated Lancers.

The Wildcats finished with eight hits, but stranded at least one runner per inning, 12 overall and seven runners in the final three innings.

"We left too many runners in scoring position (seven) and we need to work on that," Neuqua Valley coach Michelle Schmidt said. "Our record doesn't indicate the talent we have. We haven't put it together yet, but there's still lots of games to play."

The latest softball rankings by The Chicago Sun-Times came out Monday and Central is no where to be found and I can't figure out why.

Maybe it's because through last week the Redhawks had only been able to play three games due to bad weather; but they still moved to 3-0 after Friday's convincing 4-0 victory over No. 7 Glenbard South and that should've been enough to at least put them on the "Others to watch" list.

The Redhawks improved to 4-0 with a 5-1 win over Naperville North on Monday.

Central is the real deal with picthing ace Natalie Wunderlich (4-0), who can win games on the mound and at the plate. In the game against South, the junior doubled in a run and gave up just three hits in a shutout. Sophomore Megan Silke, the younger sister of former pitching star Sara Silke, hit a solo home run in the game and can hit the ball well as can junior Erin Graham. The Redhawks also have excellent fielders in senior shortstop Lizzy Ploen and sophomore second baseman Jori Gonzalez. They are well- coached by 25-year veteran Andy Nussbaum (408 wins) and they have pitching talent besides Wunderlich. Natalie's younger sister Alyssa had some buzz surrounding her even before the season began, while junior Lauren Huber finished two years on the junior varsity with a 38-14 record.

Where's the love? Do you think the Redhawks deserve to be ranked? Or with just four games under their belt do they still have more to prove?