1A softball: Serena survives 11-inning battle with Newark 1-0 to claim sectional championship

RURAL STREATOR – After splitting their Little Ten Conference regular-season series and the 2024 league title, just about everybody expected a great battle for the Class 1A Woodland Sectional championship between the Newark Norsemen and Serena Huskers.

But nobody expected this.

The Huskers and Norsemen played an instant classic Friday at the Windy Confines, with Lanee Cole singling home Paisley Twait for the first and only run of the ballgame in the top of the 11th inning and Maddie Glade making that one little run stand up with a 1-2-3 bottom half as Serena advanced to Monday’s 1A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional winning a 1-0, 11-inning thriller.

The story of the game – aside from its length and Cole’s soft-hit, game-winning single – was the efforts put in by the batteries of Serena’s Maddie Glade (11 IP, 0 R, 10 H, 2 BB, 12 K) and catcher RayElle Brennan opposed by Newark’s Kodi Rizzo (11 IP 1 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 21 K) and Danica Peshia.

Rizzo overpowered the Huskers lineup most of the day, striking out eight straight at one point and at least one would-be hitter in each of the game’s 11 innings. Glade, on the other hand, flirted with trouble throughout, but got the big outs when she needed them, effectively scattering Newark’s 10 hits.

“I feel great,” said a smiling Glade after the 11-inning shutout performance. “This is a great feeling. I knew that [Newark] was going to hit, because they’re all good hitters, but the defense has had my back the whole season.

“I was like, ‘If I throw strikes, my defense is going to make the plays,’ and they did. They were spot-on today.”

Serena (22-7) will play the winner of Saturday’s Villa Grove-LeRoy sectional final Monday at 11 a.m. at Bloomington’s Inspiration Field.

“[Newark is] and always has been a very well-coached team ... a friendly rivalry with mutual respect between both programs,” Serena coach Kelly Baker said. “It really was going to come down to who was going to [make a mistake].

“I’m really just proud of how resilient the girls were.”

Friday’s game started a couple minutes before 3 p.m. and ended at 7:01. While the 11 innings ate up most of those four hours, there was also a 1-hour, 12-minute lightning delay two pitches into the ninth.

Serena – which hadn’t managed more than one runner on base in any inning prior to the delay – put runners on second and third in the ninth before Rizzo powered her way out of the jam, then Makayla McNally aboard with the Huskers’ first hit of the game to lead off the 10th before Rizzo struck out the next three to step in.

A three-base error on a hard-hit fly ball to left put Serena in business again in the 11th. This time the Huskers cashed in with Cole’s seeing-eye single through the left side after fouling off a pair of tough two-strike offerings from Rizzo, allowing Twait to stomp on the plate standing for the winning run.

“I went up there with a positive mindset as much as I could,” Cole said, “and I knew whatever happened, my team would be behind me. I could hear them cheering, my coaches were telling me ‘You’ve got it. That’s why you’re here.’

“And I hit it, I saw it go between [the shortstop and third baseman], and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is it!’ "

Newark (25-5) – which had runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings before being retired 1-2-3 in each of the three innings after the lightning stoppage – received two hits apiece off the bats of Ryan Williams, Stephanie Snyder and Kate Bromeland and out-hit Serena 10-2.

“Hats off to Serena,” Norsemen coach Jon Wood said. “They battled tough for 11 innings. We had opportunities, but we just couldn’t seem to get the ball to fall when the opportunity was there.

“It went their way at the end there, but I’m super proud of my girls. They fought and battled, they’re resilient, and I think they did a heck of a job.”