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Benet’s Nina Pesare heard the crack of the bat and instantly took off running.
The junior center fielder had somewhere to be and a promise to keep.
It was the bottom of the seventh inning, and Waubonsie Valley’s Lily Elsea smashed a pitch from Alex O’Rourke deep to the gap in left-center. Pesare was playing the left-handed hitting Elsea to pull.
“Going into that inning, I went up to Alex, and I said, ‘Hey, I got your back. We just need three outs. Anything you pitch, I promise I’ll get it for you,’” Pesare said. “I was shaded because I knew the wind was kind of blowing that way. But as soon as I saw it off the bat, I just knew I had to bust my butt to go get it.”
Pesare did exactly that, making a sensational grab near the fence for the second out of the inning. O’Rourke then struck out the next batter to complete Benet’s come-from-behind 9-7 victory on Friday.
Pesare’s defensive gem was a momentum killer for the host Warriors, who had scored two runs on the previous play when Mackenzie Ondrejcak tripled home Anna Riggs and scored after the throw home got away.
But the Redwings (8-1) weren’t surprised by Pesare’s catch. They’ve seen her make plays like that before.
“That’s like an everyday catch for her,” Benet coach Jerry Schilf said. “Once the ball is in the air, she’ll get a good angle on it, which is really important. She gets a good jump, and she has confidence in herself.”
Benet second baseman Gianna Horejs wasn’t worried when the ball came off Elsea’s bat.
“I did see it was a tough ball, but I definitely had confidence in Nina,” Horejs said. “She’s caught a lot of really tough balls, so I had confidence in her that she could get to that one.”
Pesare, a third-year starter and two-time all-conference selection, has been running down balls since she was a freshman. She has also been putting them into play as Benet’s leadoff hitter. Through nine games, Pesare is hitting .395 with 15 runs, 11 stolen bases, three triples and four RBIs.
“Nina is definitely one of our key players,” Horejs said. “She really takes charge in the outfield. She’s great at tracking the ball, and she has a great arm.
“Leading off, she’s definitely very aggressive at the plate and starts us off really well.”
The Redwings didn’t get off to a great start against Waubonsie Valley (1-10), falling behind 5-0. But Pesare, who went 3-for-4 with a run, an RBI and a stolen base, tripled and scored to key a three-run fourth inning that got the rally started.
Her best at-bat, though, was arguably her last. The Redwings led 7-5 when Marikate Ritterbusch reached on an error to lead off the seventh. That brought up Pesare. Before she stepped in against hard-throwing lefty Hannah Laub, she had a conversation with Schilf, who let her decide what to do.
“We were striking out a lot against this pitcher,” Schilf said. “We couldn’t hit her, so I said these are the two options: a bunt to move her over to second, or swing away and hit a double in the gap.”
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Pesare chose the former and executed the sacrifice bunt.
“Obviously, everybody prefers to hit it in the gap,” Pesare said. “But I was like, ‘I’ll lay down a bunt,’ because I know for the whole team, you need to lay down a bunt to move a runner, which definitely helped out.
“We have some big hitters with 2-3-4 coming up, there’s a runner on second and one out, and I knew they could do it. The whole team brought enthusiasm.”
Indeed, Taylor Sconza followed with an RBI single. Angela Horejs and Gianna Horejs also had run-scoring hits to give Benet a four-run cushion.
Pesare is receiving interest from Division I colleges, but recruiting is not her main focus at the moment.
“She wants to succeed for the team,” Schilf said. “It’s really important to her.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
