Softball: Lauren Latoria's move pays off for Montini in sectional final

GLEN ELLYN – About one-third into this season, Montini junior and third-year starting second baseman Lauren Latoria made the bold move to shortstop.

“I’ve never been on that side of the field before. They threw me in one conference game against Mother McAuley. My first throw down I took during warmups,” Latoria said. “It’s been really interesting, fun though. It reminds me of freshman year, which was a good year for us (Class 3A state champions.

"It definitely makes a difference having (Nikki Cuchran) at third. She’s going to be making the plays.”

On Saturday, it was Latoria who made huge plays defensively that helped the Broncos edge rival St. Francis 3-2 and win the Class 3A Glenbard South Sectional title.

Montini (27-9) advances to its third straight Rosemont Supersectional at 4:30 p.m. Monday against Lemont. Montini also defeated St. Francis (25-3) in last year’s sectional final 3-2 but lost to Nazareth at the supersectional.

“Just the energy the whole game was amazing. Everyone had each other’s back. That was the best part,” said Cuchran, a DePaul recruit. “I feel like it’s similar intensity (to the 2017 sectional), but it just feels a lot more special. I don’t know, senior year probably. In the playoffs, every little thing maters. Every pitch, every play.”

Montini broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ashley Lynch hit a leadoff single and courtesy runner Neena Franklin was awarded third after a pickoff throw deflected off Franklin and rolled barely out of play. After another infield error, Franklin scored on a double play.

The one-run margin held thanks in part to Latoria. In the second, she took the relay from junior Alyssa Filkowski on senior Josie Smith’s RBI double. From short left field, Latoria threw out the trail runner at home, keeping Montini ahead 2-1. Latoria also handled a grounder deflected by winning pitcher Bri Clifton’s glove in the sixth and made a great play in the hole to open the seventh.

St. Francis got two runners on after two outs in the eventh before a grounder to Clifton (21-5) ended the game.

“(Latoria) had two really big-time plays in the last couple of innings and was a difference,” Montini coach Mike Bukovsky said. “When you get to this point of the season, teams know each other so well, it’s just going to be a grind-fest. There was a little bit of ugliness to the game, but you just have to persevere and push through. That really was the mindset.”

Each team had four hits, two each by Clifton and Smith. Four runs could be traced to each team’s two errors, hit batters, walks or runner’s interference.

“We gave up weird runs. It wasn’t a pretty game. It was an exciting game, though,” St. Francis coach Ralph Remus said. “We’ve had a great season. We’ll miss (our seniors) but we’re a pretty deep program right now. We should be solid next year.”

In the first, Latoria hit a hard two-out grounder that went over the head of St. Francis junior pitcher Carlee Clark and scored junior Emily Alexander and Cuchran, who both were hit by pitches.

“That was special. I’ve been in a slump so it was big for me to finally hit the ball,” Latoria said.

Cuchran reached on a full-count pitch that many spectators believed was a foul ball.

“It hit my helmet and then my bat,” Cuchran said.

In the second, St. Francis junior Caroline Caesar walked and scored on Smith’s double. Caesar then had a game-tying sacrifice fly in the fourth after senior Shelby Winkelman had a leadoff single and went to third on an infield error. The Spartans’ trail runner, however, was thrown out making a delayed attempt at third base.

“Our record wasn’t great. I don’t even know how many losses we had,” Latoria said. “We’re battle tested and that shows a lot in games like this. We can handle pressure, keep bouncing back, coming back from errors. We want to face the best and we faced the best.”