Oswego stuns Wheaton North with four straight homers in six-run seventh, wins sectional final rematch

WHEATON – Jaelynn Anthony wasn’t necessarily thinking home run when she came to the plate after watching two Oswego teammates before her go deep.

It wasn’t completely out of her mind, either.

“I’m looking to hit the ball hard, do what I can to help,” Anthony said. “As long as I hit the ball hard and square up, might as well go out.”

The balls were indeed flying out of Wheaton North’s field on Tuesday, especially the last inning.

Anthony’s go-ahead home run to straight center field, her ninth of the season, was the third of four consecutive Oswego homers in the top of the seventh.

The Panthers scored six runs in the seventh for a stunning 14-12 comeback win at Wheaton North in a rematch of last year’s sectional final between state-ranked teams.

Kiyah Chavez’s three-run homer started the rally, and Aubriella Garza, Anthony and Rikka Ludvigson followed with solo homers, for Ludvigson her second in as many innings.

Anthony, a Purdue recruit, then came on in relief in the bottom of the inning, striking out the side and stranding the tying runs on base.

In doing so Oswego (22-1) got back on track in a big way, after taking its first loss of the season on Monday to Plainfield South.

“We knew we were going to come back because yesterday we did not play well. We know what we’re capable of,” Anthony said. “We figured it out. We hate to lose. We were not taking a loss again.”

Anthony was the winning pitcher and had the game-winning hit in last year’s 1-0, extra-inning playoff thriller.

The rematch, equally as dramatic, bore no resemblance.

With Wheaton North ace Hannah Wulf, a South Carolina recruit, out sick, both teams opted to start their No. 3 pitchers. Both used two pitchers until Anthony came on in the seventh.

It resulted in a game with a combined 10 homers, five on each side. Wheaton North senior shortstop Reagan Crosthwaite hit two of her team’s five, the second a go-ahead three-run homer with two out in the fourth, her 14th of the season.

Abby Del Preto’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 11-6.

“With Wulf not pitching, the game goes a different way. That’s fine,” Wheaton North coach Allie Ravanesi said. “They’re a good hitting team, good all-around. I thought we had them, but sometimes it throws you a curveball.”

The curveball started with Ludvigson’s two-run homer in the sixth that made it 11-8. It ended with Ludvigson’s solo homer in the seventh, Oswego’s fourth straight long ball.

Ludvigson is not normally one of Oswego’s home run hitters, with now five on the year. But she was ready to hit the ball hard Tuesday, with good reason.

“She just so happened to be my travel teammate, their second pitcher. I know what she throws, I had some insider information,” Ludvigson said. “Lately I have not been sitting back on the ball. Had to sit back on it.”

It was no surprise to Oswego co-coach Annie Scaramuzzi to see Chavez, an Iowa recruit, start the string of seventh-inning homers. Chavez hit three in a game last week, and came to the plate in the seventh after Savannah Page and Adalynn Fugitt singles to start the inning.

“Kiyah is always the spark. Everybody trusts when Kiyah is at the plate that she’ll get it done,” Scaramuzzi said. “It’s tough to beat our hitters 3-4 times.”

Tough to beat a team like Oswego twice in two days too, although Scaramuzzi was OK with the timing of the 3-2 loss to Plainfield South.

“We told them yesterday we deserved that loss, and we needed it,” Scaramuzzi said. “It’s easy to get complacent when you’re winning 21 games in a row. Even though we were winning those games we weren’t playing our best softball. It was a good check in for us.

“We knew it would be a slugfest today. Happy to see our players step up in big moments.”

Makayla Hammer and Delaney Surber also homered for Wheaton North (17-4), which dropped its second game in as many days after an eight-game winning streak.

It doesn’t get any easier for DuKane Conference-leading Falcons, who are at St. Charles East Wednesday and host Wheaton Warrenville South Friday.

“Coming off of St. Charles North Monday, only having four hits, it was nice to see them come back and have 14 hits against a good pitching team,” Ravanesi said. “We need to just keep peaking with tough conference games. It is what it is, got to keep fighting back, water under the bridge.”