Lady Hubs softball team defeats DeKalb on Hacaga's walk-off single

Rochelle girls earn first conference win in five seasons

Russell Hodges
Posted 4/8/18

Lady Hub senior softball player Teddi Hacaga wasn’t going to let Rochelle’s six-game losing streak continue when the purple and white faced the DeKalb Barbs on the road this past Friday.

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Lady Hubs softball team defeats DeKalb on Hacaga's walk-off single

Rochelle girls earn first conference win in five seasons

Posted

DEKALB — Lady Hub senior softball player Teddi Hacaga wasn’t going to let Rochelle’s six-game losing streak continue when the purple and white faced the DeKalb Barbs on the road this past Friday.

Trailing by one run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Hacaga approached the plate with the bases loaded and only one out. Lady Hub senior Sarena Abdallah and junior Macy Luxton began the frame with singles before freshman Bella Lodico reached base on an error.

Hacaga wanted nothing more than a base hit, and the senior slapped a hard ball up the middle on the first pitch to score two runs and give Rochelle its first win of the season by a final score of 7-6.

“It was one of those situations where I really wanted to get a hit and I wanted the perfect pitch,” said Hacaga, whose two-run single gave the Lady Hubs their first Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference win in five seasons. “I knew I had to do it and that first pitch was the one. I hit it through the pitcher’s legs and drove both runs in.”

The ninth-inning rally was Rochelle’s second comeback effort of the day after the Lady Hubs scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the conference contest into extras. Lodico began the 2018 season at the fresh-soph level, but she pitched all nine innings for Rochelle (1-6) on Friday while striking out 11 batters en route to her first victory as a varsity pitcher.

“I was nervous being pulled up but once I got myself into the flow of things I knew that I could play at this level,” Lodico said. “I just needed to play my game. It felt amazing for us to put all of our fundamentals together… I feel really good when I have a defense behind me that can make plays while I’m pitching.”

Friday’s game was Rochelle’s second of a back-to-back after the Lady Hubs fell 10-0 at Ottawa on Thursday. Abdallah and Luxton each totaled two hits for Rochelle on Friday, with Hacaga, senior Britney Salinas, junior Becca Bunger and junior Maddi O’Rorke each recording one hit. Bunger and O’Rorke each had one RBI in the victory. The Rochelle girls will look to keep their positive momentum rolling when they face Geneseo, Harvard and Hononegah later this week.

“We had two close games earlier this season but being able to win a conference game shows that we can really do this,” Hacaga said. “We’re not just going to lose. We can win and this win definitely boosts our confidence.”