Moe pitches 2-hitter for East softball
ST. CHARLES – The margin for error in the St. Charles East softball team’s season opener against Glenbard North was narrow, but on an evening when starting pitcher Gaby Moe and her defense were near perfect, that margin seemed to be of little concern to the Saints.
Moe threw a two-hit shutout Thursday evening as the Saints topped the Panthers, 1-0, setting what East coach Kelly Barnett referred to as an “exciting” tone for the season.
“Our mantra this year is every game’s a big game, so it definitely feels good and the kids really did what it takes to win today, so all around we’re pretty excited,” Barnett said.
East (1-0) beat Glenbard North standout senior pitcher Hannah Santora, who fanned nine Saints batters and allowed only three singles while walking none. But East took advantage of the one true scoring chance it had.
No. 9 hitter Pamela Sommer reached on a leadoff single to start the bottom of the third inning and reached second on Mary Kate Brooks’ bunt single. A wild pitch moved the runners up a base, and Sommer scored on Jenny Niemiec’s groundout to second.
“[The wild pitch] was huge,” Barnett said. “That’s aggressive base running and that’s what we stress. We’re going to go, go, go.”
Moe wasn’t overpowering often, but pitched well to contact with her dropball. She struck out five batters and walked two in seven innings while allowing her defense to do most of the work behind her.
“We work so hard during practice, so it was pretty much expected that we’d have a solid defense,” Moe said.
Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew would have liked to see his Panthers adjust their approach at the plate after the first time through the order, but that never really happened. The Panthers (0-1) had only two base runners reach second base.
“You’ve got to get up there and take a little better and smarter hitting approach here,” Sanew said. “We’ve got a little bit of bats just happy to get through the zone. You’ve got to swing the bat. You’ve got to swing the bat, and that’s what the name of the game is. … I didn’t feel that our preparation at the plate was very good today.”
It certainly wasn’t an offensive explosion for the Saints either, but Barnett has no problem with the way her girls played if they’re able to continue the crisp play in the field.
Likewise, Moe thought coming away with a win in a big early-season game was a big step in the right direction for East.
“The intensity was way up there for the whole team,” Moe said. “We’ve been practicing really hard and we really wanted this because we haven’t beat them in a while. It feels really good. First game [two]-hitter feels pretty good too.”