Oswego pitcher Jaelynn Anthony just wants to have fun.
So says junior catcher Kiyah Chavez, the hard-throwing sophomore right-hander’s good friend.
“I’m so comfortable with her,” Chavez said. “She’s one of my best friends. I don’t know if you can tell by our chemistry, but on the bus ride here, we go back and forth. We mess with each other.
“Jaelynn’s just weird, and she plays her absolute best when she’s acting like a hooligan. One of my jobs is to make sure she’s always being silly. That’s when she’s at her best.”
Anthony, who is having the time of her life adding to her splendid season’s story line, was at her best Wednesday afternoon in leading the Panthers to a 5-0 victory over Wheaton Warrenville South in the Class 4A Plainfield North Sectional semifinals.
Anthony (11-4) struck out nine and scattered seven hits and three walks while lowering her ERA to 2.16 in tossing the shutout for Oswego (26-9), which plays at 4:30 p.m. Friday for the title against top-seeded Wheaton North, a 3-0 winner over Plainfield East in Wednesday’s other semifinal.
She also starred at the plate, hitting a solo home run to left field in the second inning. Unfazed by a brisk wind blowing in from center, Anthony finished with two hits and two RBIs. It was her 13th homer of the season.
“She threw it where I like it, middle low, and it just went out,” Anthony said of the offering from Wheaton Warrenville South pitcher Maddie Pool, an Illinois Wesleyan commit.
Chavez, an Iowa recruit and Anthony’s partner in fun, launched two sacrifice flies to center for RBIs in the first and third innings. Both drove in senior right fielder Kaylee LaChappell, a leadoff speedster who moved up on sacrifice bunts by senior second baseman Marissa Moffett.
“It’s good to have good hitting one through nine like that,” Anthony said. “We had a lot of runs up there, so if they scored a couple, it wasn’t going to be the biggest deal.”
Oswego did have two errors, but the defense came up with big plays twice to help Anthony escape trouble.
In the fourth, Wheaton Warrenville South’s leadoff slapper hit a bouncer high off the plate with the bases loaded and two out. Chavez grabbed it in front of the dish, spun around and dove back to tag the plate with her glove for the out.
In the sixth, Chavez fielded a two-out strike from junior left fielder Natalie Muellner after a single and tagged out a runner trying to score from second.
“Phenomenal,” Chavez said of Muellner’s dart from just inside the foul line. “Natalie is somebody who started the season under the radar but made the most of her chances.
“Given a chance, she’s proven herself over and over. And she’s had so many key at-bats.”
Muellner, batting ninth, added two of Oswego’s seven hits.
On her force play, Chavez wanted to field the spinning ball before it could hit the ground and squirt away.
“I needed that,” Anthony said. “It helped me a lot and was a clutch play.”
Anthony confirmed recent work on her curve the previous day paid off.
“I was pretty confident,” she said. “I’d been struggling with the curve and have worked on the spin so it breaks later and is harder to hit. The curve and my change-up were out pitches for me.”
Chavez pointed out that Anthony is a challenge for high school hitters.
“She gets nervous but finds a way to battle through it,” Chavez said. “You don’t see many pitchers like that throwing 63, 64 mph with a bunch of spin like she has. They’re usually fast or have more spin, one or the other.
“They also don’t usually have the control she has. For Jaelynn to have all three is really big for our team.”
