Bobcats Face Off Against the Indians and Lose; 3-0

By Dennis Bowling

Last season, in Class 3A softball circles, the Lemont Indians won the state title. Currently, their ace hurler Sage Mardjetko is among the best pitchers in the state of Illinois. She was in remarkable form and she handled Beecher with relative ease on May 6.

Mardjetko (12-0) allowed a meager three scattered hits, fanned an impressive 15 batters, to help Lemont beat Beecher 3-0 in a nonconference battle in Lemont.

Mardjetko has won an impressive 15 games in a row. Lemont is 17-1 overall. She currently has a career 757 strikeouts and a .063 ERA. They are 10-1 at home. She pocketed rave reviews from Bobcats head coach Kevin Hayhurst.

“Sage is one of the best pitchers in the state,” he said. “She has great command of all her pitches. She is smart and poised on the mound. We have to learn to hit that type of pitcher. We need to be good at bats too.”

In the top of the fourth frame, after two outs, Beecher’s Kylie Cook singled. Mardjetko got the Bobcats (22-4) Abby Sipple to end the possible scoring threat.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Bobcats Emma Tiltges singled. After that, Mardjetko fanned Beecher Tayiah Scanlan, Ava Olson, Ava Lorenzatti to quell the possible scoring chance.

In the top of the seventh frame, the Bobcats Cook singled. Beecher’s Sippel, Elena Kvasnicka and Liliana Irwin each made outs to end the game.

Lemont scored one run in the first frame off losing pitcher Lorenzatti. They added two runs in the fourth frame to conclude their scoring.

Sippel praised Lemont hurler Mardjetko.

“She was the toughest pitcher that we have faced,” she said. “She had such control over our batters. We tried to hit her pitches.”

The Bobcats catcher Aubrey Tiltges summarized the game with Class 3A power Lemont.

“That was the most stressful game that we have played,” she said. “Their pitcher is the best that we have faced. We battled. We tried to swing down and hit the rise ball pitch. We played very well. We have to learn from this loss.”

The Bobcats Lorenzatti had a great outing. She fanned 14 batters and allowed only five hits. In Class 2A circles, Lorenzatti is among the best in this area. She has a 12-3 overall mark, allowed only 20 hits, five earned runs, has 222 strikeouts, 12 walks, 0.434 ERA.

With the Class 2A state tournament just around the corner, the Bobcats are prepared to have a very successful post season run.