Gabby Christopher homers twice, backs up Jozsa Christiansen’s gem in Marengo’s win over Sycamore

SYCAMORE – Gabby Christopher said outside pitches can give her trouble sometimes.

Fortunately for the Marengo slugger on Friday against Sycamore, she was ready.

Christopher said her teammates were communicating so she knew to expect something outside. It led to home runs in her first two at-bats as the Indians knocked off the Spartans 12-2.

“I think it was just a whole lot of confidence,” Christopher said. “I came in there and I heard she was throwing outside. Sometimes I struggle with that pitch, but I can angle it sometimes. So I went up there and definitely tried to get that pitch. Changeup, not what I wanted to swing at, but being able to sit on that was huge.”

Both of Christopher’s home runs came with two outs. In the first, her bomb to left capped a two-run inning for Marengo (9-4). In the second, her three-run blast to dead center capped the scoring in a six-run inning for the Indians.

Northwestern recruit Kylee Jensen hit a solo home run in the seventh to push the Marengo lead to 10 for the first time.

“We just had a whole lot of communication about that pitcher,” said Christopher, who set a McHenry County record with 20 home runs last year. “She was only hitting outside and we were communicating that with each other. I think just being able to tell each other that and keeping our energy up, telling each other we can do it, I think that’s just what carried us.”

The victory was the sixth in a row for the Indians, and they’ve scored at least 12 runs in each of those games. The win streak started with a 12-2 win over Antioch, a team that reached the Class 3A ttate Tournament and beat Sycamore in a supersectional to get there.

“We left the ball up and when you have two Division-I players over there, they’re going to hit a bazillion home runs,” Sycamore coach Jill Carpenter said. “Marengo hits. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re known for. So you have to be pretty perfect on the mound to keep their bats at bay.”

The Spartans (4-1) are in the middle of four games in three days, with a doubleheader against Woodstock North looming Saturday.

With Bella Johnson pitching seven innings on a cold and windy day Thursday in a 13-5 win over Belvidere North, Carpenter wanted to give Addison Dierschow a start. Dierschow hadn’t pitched in almost two weeks, Carpenter said, and needed to shake off some rust.

“You’re trying to not burn kids out with seven weeks left in the season and we have 30 games left on our schedule,” Carpenter said. “We’ve got like eight practices left. Sometimes we’re going to have to keep people in a little bit longer than we want to.”

The only runs for the Spartans came courtesy of a two-run homer from Kairi Lantz in the third, cutting the Marengo lead to 9-2. Lantz had two of the six hits for the Spartans.

Jozsa Christiansen picked up the complete-game win, walking four and striking out four. She allowed just the two earned runs.

“She pitched really well only giving up two runs on a two-run bomb against a really deep hitting lineup,” Marengo coach Dwain Nance said. “The changeup was really, really effective, and that’s something she’s been struggling with lately. It was good to see her come out, throw that and throw a complete game. It should really help her confidence.”

Marengo pounded out 18 hits in the win. Jensen was 4 for 4 with three RBIs and scored twice. Ari Rodriguez was 4 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. Christopher had three hits, three runs and four RBIs. Alyssa Pollnow scored twice and Gianna Iovinelli had a pair of hits.

The No. 7, 8 and 9 hitters (Rodriguez, Pollnow and Iovinelli) were a combined 7 for 11 with four runs and two RBIs.

“They get on base and cause havoc for the top of the order,” Nance said. “That’s what we pride ourselves on. When we fill out a lineup it doesn’t really matter where we put the kids. We’ve set the top four, but the bottom five, they’ve been all over.”