1A softball: Serena leads into 6th inning but falls in 8th to Villa Grove 5-2 at Wesleyan Supersectional

BLOOMINGTON – Only six outs from state, the Serena Huskers’ run through the postseason came to an end Memorial Day afternoon.

Villa Grove scored two times in the sixth inning to erase Serena’s two-run lead, then three times in the top of the eighth to take control of the Blue Devils’ 5-2, extra-inning win over the Huskers in the Class 1A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional on Inspiration Field at Carol Willis Park.

“Like I told the girls,” Serena coach Kelly Baker said, “it just wasn’t our day. We did a lot of things right, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“We didn’t look nervous. We didn’t have those jitters. I was so proud of the way they came out ... but things just didn’t go our way today.”

Early on, they did.

After getting a double from Paisley Twait in the bottom of the first inning but stranding the senior at first, Serena (22-8) came through in the third. No. 9 hitter Brynley Glade started things off with a one-out, Texas-league double to shallow center field. RayElle Brennan traded places with her immediately, cranking a double halfway up the fence in left to make it 1-0 Huskers.

Brennan, who took third on the throw home trying to cut down Brynley Glade, scored herself on Jenna Setchell’s RBI groundout, making it 2-0 after three innings.

“[This season] was just amazing,” Brennan said. “My team fought to get here. We battled every game, even this game. I’m so proud of my team. It was great.

“I feel like it all started in the dugout. Our dugout built up, and we definitely had a very positive atmosphere there, and it showed on the field.”

And there it stayed for a bit, as Huskers junior ace Maddie Glade started the day with a 1-2-3 top of the first and – after shutting out both Dwight and Newark in the 1A Woodland Sectional – ran her consecutive scoreless postseason inning streak to 25 by keeping the Blue Devils (25-13-1) off the scoreboard the opening five innings despite runners reaching in the second and fifth.

The streak ended in the sixth, however. A leadoff walk to Villa Grove No. 9 hitter Chloe Reardon and a bloop single off the bat of Kayln Cordes came back to haunt Maddie Glade when her counterpart, Blue Devils pitcher Alexandria Brown, slugged a two-run double to right-center, scoring both Reardon and Cordes to tie the game 2-2. A strike from center fielder Cali Edwards to Twait at third cut down Brown trying to advance and helped the Huskers escape with the tie still intact.

“I’ll tell you, [Serena] made some unbelievable plays,” Villa Grove coach Jeana Block said. “I said, ‘Just keep putting it in play, eventually it falls, that’s just how it works.’ And once we started putting the ball in play a little bit more, things fell our way.

“And I knew once we tied it, we’ve got this.”

Block’s words proved prophetic. While Serena went down quickly in the home half of the sixth and seventh innings, the Blue Devils continued to put pressure on Maddie Glade (8 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 4 K) and what up to that point had been a phenomenal Huskers defensive effort – especially from Twait at third, Setchell at shortstop and Brynley Glade in right field.

That pressure came to a head in the first extra inning.

After a Cordes single and the second foul out of the game run down by Brynley Glade along the right field fence line, Villa Grove No. 3 hitter Piper Kiser stepped in and stayed alive after hitting a pop foul of her own in the on-deck nook between the backstop and the Blue Devils’ dugout. Serena’s players and on-deck hitter Alison Pangburn got in each other’s way, but after Baker asked the umpires to meet and discuss a potential interference call, Kiser was allowed to step back into the batter’s box.

Two pitches later, Kiser blasted a two-run, line-drive homer well over the fence in right field to give Villa Grove its first lead. The Blue Devils added another run thanks to two errors and a single.

Brynley Glade doubled with two outs in the bottom of the eighth for her second hit of the day but was left stranded there when Brennan’s well-struck fly ball was run down just in front of the warning track in left to send the Blue Devils to next Friday’s state semifinals and the Huskers – co-Little Ten Conference champs, regional champs and sectional champs – home.

“Once we got Brynley on second, I thought, ‘Maybe this is where we’re going to do it,’ ” Baker said. “But I’m so proud of them.

“The seniors, they left our program in a better place.”