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Schools

For the First Time, Blazers Beat Huskies In Softball

Blazers earn 4-1 milestone victory over OPRF at Triton College.

Trinity’s on-the-rise softball program has achieved a lot, including a second-place showing in Class 3A last year and a Top 10 ranking in the Chicago area this season. One thing the Blazers hadn’t done, however, is beat Oak Park-River Forest High School. 

Until Tuesday, that is. 

Trinity added a milestone victory to its expanding list of accomplishments by beating the Huskies 4-1 at Triton College in River Grove.

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“We’ve been talking a lot about being the best in the area and they’ve been the best in the area for the last 10 years and Morton was for 10 years before that so our goal now is to take the next 10,” Trinity coach Bob Osborne said. “This was a step we needed to take. I’m excited."

“Every year we come into this game and it’s one of our biggest games,” Blazers winning pitcher Chase Machain said. “We were all really excited for it. To win it for the first time is such a big accomplishment. It’s a great feeling.”

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Trinity (11-1) is off to a hot start while OPRF (2-9) is off to an uncharacteristic slow one, and the neighbors found themselves in the middle of a scoreless pitching duel with each other Tuesday. Machain, a sophomore, and OPRF freshman Emma Baldwin each took a perfect game into the fourth inning.

OPRF’s Maureen Puccetti recorded the first hit of the game when her flair landed just behind the hole on the left side of the infield with one out in the top of the fourth.

Trinity’s Gianna Coduti recorded the first hit for her team when she dropped a bunt single with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Coduti stole second base and then motored all the way home on Nicole Evans’ grounder to short. The Blazers added two more runs in the inning, highlighted by Monica Garcia’s RBI single, to take a 3-0 lead.

“Today we struggled in the beginning, but then we came together and got our energy up,” Coduti said. “We did the little things to win.”

The Huskies scored in the sixth when Puccetti singled with one out and scored on Ann Ryan’s double.

Trinity tacked on a run in its half of the sixth. Evans led off with a double and eventually scored on an error to make it 4-1.

Machain improved to 7-1. The lefty scattered six hits and struck out six without issuing a walk.

“I thought she pitched great today,” Osborne said. “That was one of her better games. I thought she changed speeds well. She was moving in and out, and up and down really well.”

Machain’s changeup was particularly effective and she threw it often.

“I worked all summer on my change-up, pretty much everyday just so I could get to this point,” Machain said.

OPRF coach Mel Kolbusz was encouraged by his team’s performance against the highly-regarded Blazers.

“We still go into defensive lapses,” he said. “We made a couple bad plays today, but otherwise we played them pretty tough. They’re obviously a great team. They’ve got outstanding hitters. This is a good game for us.”

Kolbusz liked what he saw from Baldwin, who limited Trinity’s potent lineup to five hits.

“She gives me a lot of hope for the future,” he said. “She’s just a skinny little kid, but she’s really composed and she battles. She doesn’t let stuff faze her.” 

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