Sometimes, you just have to hit pause and then refresh.

It’s hard to imagine now, but St. Charles East freshman Brynn Maple will never forget how her first experience with playing softball didn’t go very well at all.

Really?

“I was just a little kid, trying out different sports and trying to find out what fit me best,” Maple said. “I remember my first year of playing, I hated it because I was so scared of getting hit by the ball.

“I didn’t do it the next year. After that, though, I came back to softball and just started to love it.”

That love continued Friday.

Maple, a left-handed outfielder/first baseman, hit a two-run homer to left-center that proved to be the difference as the Saints held off visiting Sycamore for a 5-4 nonconference victory.

South Carolina-bound senior catcher Hayden Sujack actually got things rolling for for St. Charles East (18-5) by lining a first-inning pitch over the left field fence for her 12th home run of the season and program-record 54th of her career.

It gave senior pitcher Hannah Wulf, a fellow South Carolina recruit, the early 1-0 lead. Freshman shortstop Kayla LaRose also contributed three hits. Maple’s home run built a 5-0 advantage.

Wulf struck out eight without a walk and limited Sycamore (16-4) to one hit in her three innings.  Senior pitcher Makayla Van Dinther went the final four innings, giving up a one-out, two-run homer that narrowed the gap to the final score before escaping any more trouble.

Maple, meanwhile, is joined by utility player Emily Moline as one of three freshmen for the Saints.

“It helps, especially at the beginning of the year,” Maple said. “You’re nervous as one of the underclassmen, and having two others by my side helped to work through stuff.”

Maple, who started in left field Friday and moved to first base for the final inning, has also been helped by connecting with the veteran Sujack.

A four-year varsity starter, Sujack was promoted to varsity when Maple was in sixth grade and could provide inspiration.

“Fifth grade was my first year of travel ball and I was in sixth when she started on varsity,” Maple said. “That’s when I started to know I wanted to be here. I wanted to be like her.

“So the next three years, I was putting in constant work to try and achieve those same numbers.”

Maple, who plays travel with the Dennison Silver Hawks, also tried flag football in the fall.

She felt she had a chance of making varsity when she did well at a camp for incoming freshmen that St. Charles East coach Jarod Gutesha holds every year.

“Brynn has power,” Gutresha said of Maple, who now has six homers and 15 RBIs to go with a .327 batting average this season. “The first half of the year she started out slow and was adjusting to playing a tough schedule and seeing good pitching all the time.

“As soon as it clicked a couple weeks ago, she’s been lights out.”

Maple has even settled in at third in the batting order.

Gutesha hopes it means more pitches for Sujack to hit.

“If you put (Sujack) on and we have somebody who can bop behind Hayden and hit a two-run homer, we’ll take that,” Gutesha said. “We knew Brynn could bop.”

Friday’s home run came after a strikeout in her first at-bat.

“I went out swinging at that riseball and didn’t want to do it again,” Maple said. “I went looking for my damage zone pitch, one that’s out over the middle that I can send over the fence.

“There’s not many homers I hit where I’m like the baseball players and I can just watch it, but this one, I knew it was definitely going over and I took a look.”