LP_041218

lockportlegend.com SPORTS
the Lockport Legend | April 12, 2018 | 37
Softball
McElligott set to lead powerful Porters offense this season
Max Lapthorne, Editor
Batting average and home
runs tend to be the most
popular lines on a softball
box score, but it’s the more
team-oriented RBI and runs
scored categories where
Lockport’s senior first baseman
focuses her attention.
Tara McElligott, a fouryear
varsity player for the
Porters, was one of the catalysts
for a juggernaut offense
last season that carried
Lockport to a 31-5 record.
For her part, McElligott was
responsible for 118 runs in
just 36 games, including 73
RBI, which is tied for 15th
most in a single season in Illinois
history, according to
the IHSA website.
She also maintained a batting
average above .500 and
mashed 11 home runs, but
the RBI and runs scored are
more important to McElligott
because they serve as
a barometer for her team’s
success.
“Those can’t get done
without those girls getting
on and doing their job in
front of me,” McElligott
said of her lofty RBI total.
“I can’t hit them in unless
they’re there.”
RBI opportunities should
be plentiful for McElligott
and others again this season,
as the Porters return eight
starters from last year’s team,
including two other four-year
varsity players in catcher
Gracie Voulgaris and shortstop
Courtney Schoolcraft.
“They have the most experience,
so from that perspective
they are definitely
leaders,” Lockport coach
Marissa Chovanec said of
McElligott, Voulgaris and
Schoolcraft.
In the early going, the
Lockport offense has lived
up to the hype, scoring 55 total
runs in its first five games
of the season. McElligott has
Lockport senior first baseman Tara McElligott looks out at the field during last year’s loss to Lincoln-Way East in the sectional
title game. 22nd Century Media File Photo
done her fair share of damage
in the early going, contributing
7 RBI and three long
balls. It’s no coincidence she
has gone deep three times already
this season, as one of
her goals for this season was
to hit for more power early
in the season.
“I just want to start hitting
[home runs] earlier in the
season, because a lot of them
came toward the middle or
the end [of last season]...
Just start that early and increase
my power numbers,”
McElligott said of her focus
at the plate this year.
Before she was a staple in
the heart of the LTHS lineup,
McElligott was just trying to
follow in the footsteps of her
older cousin, Lia Romeo,
who was a team captain for
the Porters softball team in
2010-2011.
“I always looked up to her,
so that’s how I started to get
into softball,” McElligott
said of Romeo.
In addition to starring for
the Porters just like her cousin,
McElligott also plays for
the Beverly Bandits travel
team, as Romeo did before
going off to play at Western
Illinois University. But starting
next year, McElligott will
be donning a jersey her cousin
never wore — the blue and
red of the University of Illinois
at Chicago Flames.
Like many of her teammates
on the Beverly Bandits,
McElligott made her
college decision during her
sophomore year. Schools
such as Eastern Kentucky,
Valparaiso and Eastern
Michigan offered to host her
on visits, but she found everything
she was looking for
in a college right in Chicago.
“Everything there was the
perfect fit,” she said.
The size of the school’s
medical school, which is the
field McElligott plans to pursue,
was among the qualities
that attracted her to the
school, but one of the largest
factors in her decision had
nothing to do with herself.
“For both my parents to
commit themselves to me,
putting everything they have
into me to get me to where
I am, and they can drive 45
minutes to come watch me
play… That was probably
the biggest thing,” she said.
Naturally, her parents, Teresa
and Gerry, were satisfied
with the decision.
“It means the world to
both of us that she wanted to
stay close for us to be there
to watch her,” Teresa said.
“... As a parent, I’m just ecstatic
to watch her go out
and play a game she loves
to play. She’s got such passion
for the game, and win or
lose at the end of the day, she
gives 110 percent.”
While McElligott looks
forward to continuing her
softball career with the
Flames, she is firmly focused
on making this year at LTHS
one to be remembered. To do
that though, the Porters will
likely have to find a way to
beat last year’s state runnerup
and conference rival Lincoln-Way
East. None of the
players on Lockport’s roster
have ever beaten the Griffins
on the varsity level, as East
has topped Lockport the last
nine times the teams have
squared off, including in last
year’s sectional title game.
“For a lot of the seniors,
that’s the biggest goal besides
going to state,” McElligott
said of beating East.
“We haven’t beat them in
our three previous years
here. We’ve gotten close; we
took them to extras and we
lost by one hit. We get close
every time, it’s just that final
push through.”
While many of the players
on the Lockport team have
had the Friday, April 13,
matchup with East circled
on their calendar, Chovanec
wants her team to bring intensity
to the field no matter
who is in the other dugout.
“Every opponent needs to
be a Lincoln-Way East,” she
said. “That mental approach
to every game needs to be
there. We need to consistently
show up to play every
day, and when we do that, I
think the outcome will work
in our favor.”
A key to beating the Griffins
and making a deep postseason
run will be the ability
of the Porters to manufacture
runs when they encounter an
elite starting pitcher, which
is something they struggled
with last year, according to
McElligott. To combat that,
Chovanec has her players
focused on refining their
mental approach at the plate,
instilling in them a sense of
duty to advance runners as
opposed to thinking about
getting a hit for themselves.
“There’s a lot of different
ways you can move runners,
and that’s their job,” Chovanec
said. “... Looking at
ways that we can manufacture
runs in that situation when
we’re facing a pitcher of that
caliber is definitely something
we’re working on.”
If McElligott and her
teammates continue putting
up the type of numbers they
did last year and in the early
going this season, and can
find a way to get over the
hump against their conference
rival, this season could
take them all the way to the
state finals in East Peoria
— and that’s exactly how
McElligott sees it playing
out.
“I think this is the best
shot we’re going to have to
make it down to state, and
I think it’s definitely in the
cards,” she said.