The St. Charles East Fighting Saints will face off against the Lake Park Lancers at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. St. Charles East is coming into the match on a four-game losing streak.
On Monday, St. Charles East came up short against Wheaton North and fell 4-1.
St. Charles East saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Hayden Sujack, who went 1-for-3 with one triple. That triple was Sujack's first of the season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Lake Park). They blew past Batavia 17-6 on Thursday. The victory continues a trend for the Lancers in their matchups with the Bulldogs: they've now won seven in a row.
Gianna Furlano spent all six innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned (and five unearned) runs on ten hits and racked up seven Ks. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in three consecutive appearances.
At the plate, Lake Park let Alexandra Kiefer and Gaetana Calo run wild. Kiefer went 4-for-5 with one home run, four runs, and four RBI, while Calo went 4-for-5 with one home run, three runs, and three RBI. That's the most RBI Kiefer has posted since back in March. The team also got some help courtesy of Marissa Marciniak, who went 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs.
Lake Park always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .634. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
St. Charles East's loss dropped their record down to 9-8. As for Lake Park, their win bumped their record up to 10-2.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. St. Charles East hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Lake Park struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
St. Charles East was able to grind out a solid victory over Lake Park when the teams last played back in May of 2024, winning 3-0. Do the Fighting Saints have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Lancers turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
