Softball: Jensen Krantz, Yorkville walk off Oak Park-River Forest in 13 in wild finish to Class 4A semifinal

PEORIA – Jensen Krantz watched Yorkville fly balls find waiting gloves in the outfield for 13 long innings on Friday.

So her last swing?

The Yorkville junior preferred to do more wishing than watching.

“I didn’t think it was hit that far,” Krantz said. “I thought the shortstop had it. But I got ‘em in. Got the job done.”

Krantz’s first pitch flare indeed fell on turf just beyond the outstretched arms of Oak Park-River Forest shortstop Elyssa Hasapis into center field.

The bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the 13th drove in the tying and winning runs to cap off Yorkville’s pulsating three-run rally for a 4-3 win in the Class 4A semifinal at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

It sends the second-ranked Foxes (36-2), in their first state tournament, into the championship game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against No. 1-ranked Marist (36-2), a 10-0 winner over Barrington.

“I’m still shaking,” Yorkville senior Sara Ebner said. “This win is crazy.”

[ Photos: Yorkville vs. Oak Park-River Forest, Class 4A semifinal ]

Crazy can certainly describe a wild 13th inning that capped off the longest game in Class 4A state finals history.

Oak Park-River Forest (30-8) scored twice in the top half. The first run came off Rachel Buchta’s two-out single to center, a play after Ebner had thrown out a runner at the plate. Kaitlyn Roberts’ throw home on Buchta’s single looked to have OPRF’s Tyler Brock out by plenty, but the ball took a high hop off the artificial turf and Yorkville catcher Kayla Kersting’s chest protector, allowing Brock to score.

Jordan Alioto’s ensuing fly ball was misplayed in the outfield, Yorkville’s fifth error, bringing in a second run for a 3-1 Huskies’ lead.

A deflating inning, but it hardly deflated the Foxes. Kersting’s one-out single started the winning rally.

“We put in all this work all season. We weren’t going to give up now,” Kersting said. “We still had three more outs to work with.”

They made it work. With two outs, Ebner singled, the runners moving up to second and third on the throw. Sam Davidowski’s line drive off Oak Park-River Forest pitcher Bella Morales’ leg went for an infield single, scoring Kersting to make it 3-2.

Davidowski’s previous at-bat had been hit on the nose, right at the right fielder, with two on and two out in the 11th, one of 16 Yorkville fly ball outs to the outfield.

“It was just about staying the course, holding onto the vision,” Yorkville coach Jory Regnier said. “We were hitting the ball all day. We were just hitting it right at them. It was not a matter of if, but when.”

Katlyn Schraeder worked a walk, loading the bases for Krantz.

Krantz, a .400 hitter coming into Friday, had been 0-for-4 at the plate up to that point, but Regnier noted Krantz was one of the few Foxes that did not get under balls and fly out.

Ebner watched from third, and called it.

“I was thinking she was due. It was her turn,” Ebner said. “We had runners on, she’s going to hit a little bit of a blooper, and she did. We’re a team that does well with pressure. We were hitting hard but right to them.”

Krantz didn’t hit it particularly hard, and she also didn’t wait long for her pitch.

“I’m comfortable getting down 0-2, but in this situation I was just trying to find the first hittable pitch and drive it,” Krantz said. “It was put on me, I had confidence in myself.”

The two teams both scored runs in the fifth inning, then went scoreless for the next seven innings in Yorkville’s first-ever state tournament game.

Anne Stine’s two-out double off Yorkville pitcher Madi Reeves in the top of the fifth drove in Gloria Hronek with the game’s first run. But the Foxes answered in the bottom half, with help. Schraeder and Abby Pool singled around a Krantz sacrifice, and with two outs Makenzie Sweeney’s fly ball was dropped in center, scoring the tying run.

“More pressure than we’ve ever had,” Krantz said. “We thought supers was a lot of pressure. This was even more.”

Reeves (25-1) was cool under that pressure as she struck out 15 and scattered eight hits, throwing 171 pitches over 13 innings in a weekend’s worth of work.

“Probably don’t throw this much in a day in travel. Maybe over a weekend,” Reeves said. “And then I just had to sit there and watch. I knew my team could do it. It was out of my control at that point.”

Out of Reeves’ control maybe, but not out of her team’s control.

“We went about our business. It’s about not making the moment too big,” Regnier said. “I told them the inning before we train for this, we have done the work, now put it all out there. In that last half-inning when we were down, they knew exactly what we needed to do. Not let the moment get too big.”

Amid a wild celebration, Ebner said they won’t let the moment linger any longer than one night.

“We all just need to focus on the next game,” Ebner said. “We can celebrate tonight, but tomorrow we have to wake up focused.”