Fremd Ousted in Tough Sectional Loss

Fremd was one out away Saturday from capturing its third straight IHSA Class 4A Sectional Championship.

However, the Vikings' one run lead quickly turned into a one run deficit as Lake Zurich freshman, Maria Schroeder, hit a fly ball that bounced off the glove of a diving Michelle Mazur in right field; Schroeder, who drove in fellow freshman Carlee Parsons, would also end up scoring on the play thanks to a Vikings' throwing error.

Lake Zurich Bears' pitcher, Megan Mattera, sent the Vikes down in order in the bottom of the 7th to give Lake Zurich (24-7) the 4-3 win and the Warren Sectional title.

"We didn't execute, and when you let a good team hang around long enough, they're going to put you in situations you don't want to be in," said Fremd head coach, Jim Weaver. "If it was 7-0, I'm sure that 7th inning would have felt a little different."

Fremd (28-6-1) got off to a hot start, taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but the top-seeded Vikes registered just two hits over the final six innings.

Allie Gaeding (2-2, SB), Mandy Matsumoto (2-3) and Brittany Ciura all reached consecutively to start the game, and after Mattera collected her first of nine strikeouts, Caitlin Patenaude (1-2, 3 RBI) cleared the bases with a frozen rope to the fence in right-center.

Patenaude, however, was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple; the junior was one of two Fremd baserunners picked off in scoring position.

"We executed our game plan offensively pretty well for what we wanted to do but we had some situations where we left some runs on the field," Weaver said. "And they were close – these weren't runners on first, they were on second and third.

"Things just weren't going our way in terms of pushing another run across."

No. 3 seed Lake Zurich cut Fremd's lead to 3-1 in the third when junior Alli McGinnis scored Parsons on an RBI single to left. In the 7th, the Bears cut Fremd's lead to one on the first of two Vikings' errors in the inning; that set the stage for Schroeder's heroics.

Though the Vikings will not be traveling to East Peoria for the third straight year (second place last season and third in 2009), Weaver was pleased with the way his girls battled all season long, and was especially grateful for the efforts and leadership of his three seniors.

"They've been fantastic," he said. "Stacey Hyntka accepted a role as a DH, did a great job with it and gave us some big innings this year. Megan Horn won the first base job – coming into the season we weren't sure of what we were going to do there, and she took it. It was hers to take and she took it and ran with it. She hit over .300 this year – both her and Stacey have been great leaders this year.

"And Allie Gaeding is Allie Gaeding. She's a lights-out defensive shortstop and should be All-State on all three polls – if she's not, then something's wrong."

Weaver was also quick to refute the notion that the Vikings exceeded expectations in 2011.

"We expect to do this every year," said the 10th year Vikings' coach. "Our expectation is to make it to State every year. When we set the bar, we set that as our goal, so no, we didn't exceed expectations. We had a good season – would have liked it to have been a little bit better, but if you don't have high expectations for yourself, then who's going to have them for you?

"I think they exceeded other people's expectations. Other people probably didn't expect a whole lot from us because we graduated so many players last year, but we knew what we had and what kind of special kids that we had."

And three of Weaver's special kids, the aforementioned Gaeding, Horn and Hyntka, will be graduating William Fremd High School on Sunday afternoon at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

"This is surreal to me – that our season is just, over," said Hyntka. "For us, it's our graduation weekend so everything is ending all at once and it's hard to believe. I love this team so much that it really hurts to see it end."

"It's weird to think that we'll be leaving the program. I loved this program ever since I joined and I can't believe that I won't be here anymore," Horn added.

Gaeding then summed it all up on behalf of her teammates:

"I'm going to miss all of it. The coaches, the players... Everything."

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