The Homer Hawks 18 Purple played in the ASA National qualifier
in Elgin. Friday morning they won both pool games, winning an international
tiebreaker against the Illinois Bandits in a thriller. Settling down, the Hawks
beat the Illinois Chill 4-1.
Double elimination started Saturday and the Elk Grove Heat pitched a shut out
and dumped them into the loser’s bracket. Starting the long road the Hawks beat
the McHenry County Heatwave 6-4 with Marcy Medina scoring twice and the Illinois
Thunder 6-2. Hillary Hubert had a Home Run and Ashlee Needy drove in a run and
scored one as the Hawks finished off the Thunder to get to Sunday.
First up were the Chicago Outburst and the Hawks won 5-1 behind great defense by
Taylor Snooks, Tess Erwinski, and Hillary Hubert and Amy Narotsky’s three
hitter. Lauren Wells had 3 RBI’s and Tess Erwinski had two more. Kelsey
Jankowski held the Barrington Hurricanes to 2 runs and the Hawks scored 5 with
RBI’s from Anna Marie Mitchell, Dana Owens, Kelsey Jankowski, Katie Paulmeyer,
and Lauren Wells (Home Run). Next up was the rematch with the Elk Grove Heat and
the Hawks prevailed 4-1 with 3 pitchers and 2 catchers doing the work. Marcy
Medina had 2 hits and scored the breakthrough run.
Down to three teams standing, playing their 4th game of the day and third
straight the Hawks finally were beat by the Bartlett Silver Hawks who already
have a bid to ASA Nationals. The Hawks prevailed in an elimination game 5
straight times before losing the 6th in a span of about 25 hours.
The Homer Hawks Purple finished 3rd out of 27 teams going 7-2 over the weekend.
There were a lot of very good teams in Elgin. To do well a team needs a little
luck but the determination of these athletes was something to be proud of.
