Softball: Aubriella Garza homer sparks comeback, sends Oswego past Minooka to first state tournament

BLOOMINGTON – Aubriella Garza hit it on a line, started running, and hoped for the best. Only at the last second did the Oswego junior steal a glance at her handiwork.

What did she see?

It was a sight only in Garza’s wildest imaginations. That is, until Monday afternoon.

“I saw she tipped it over at the last second,” Garza said, “and I was thinking ‘This is crazy.’ I have never had this happen before.”

A day of firsts it was, for both Garza and Oswego.

Her tying two-run home run that went off Minooka center fielder Sofia Dziuba’s glove and over the center field fence opened the floodgates.

Maddie Hernandez, three batters later, followed with a go-ahead two-run double.

Oswego never looked back. The Panthers scored five runs – all with two outs – in the fifth inning to storm past Minooka 5-2 in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional.

Oswego (28-9), 10 days after winning its first regional title in 37 years, is headed to the state tournament for the first time in school history.

Oswego plays St. Charles North in a state semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Peoria’s Louisville Slugger Complex.

“It’s crazy,” Hernandez said. “I’m a senior and it’s crazy that we’re making history.”

The craziness started with two out in the fifth, Oswego trailing 2-0, and Rikka Ludvigson on first base with her second of three walks.

Garza, an NIU recruit, took an outside pitch from Minooka pitcher Taylor Mackin and hit a fly ball that ended in a play she’d previously only seen on TV.

“I remember watching the College World Series and one of the girls tipped it over the fence for a home run and I thought ‘That would be crazy if it happened to me,’” Garza said. “And then it happened.”

Garza’s homer, her 10th and Oswego’s 46th of the season, provided the Panthers’ first runs off Minooka pitching this season.

Minooka (32-4-1) twice shut out Oswego 7-0, Mackin (16-2) dealing the second time. But Garza’s homer tipped over the five-foot fence was the fuse to six straight batters reaching off Mackin with two outs.

“It hit her glove, and Sophia makes that play nine out of 10 times. It just hit the right spot in her glove and bounced out,” Minooka coach Mark Brown said. “It wasn’t going out; it would have hit off the fence. The ball bounced their way today. They started finding holes. Game of momentum.”

Indeed, Natalie Muellner walked and Ella Boling singled following Garza’s home run, bringing up Hernandez.

The Wisconsin-Parkside recruit was 0 for 7 in Oswego’s three previous playoff games, and flied out her first time up Monday.

But she singled in the fourth, and with two on Hernandez doubled into the right-center field gap to bring in two runs for a 4-2 lead.

“It’s a year of lasts, and I said to myself I just need to relax and have fun,” Hernandez said. “Any at-bat could be my last at that point. Took deep breaths, relax and think first pitch.”

Hernandez, who scored on Kaylee LaChappell’s fourth hit, a double, said she was just thinking right-center off a pitcher who was “living off the outside.”

It’s an approach Garza shared.

Oswego had 10 hits off Mackin, with baserunners in every inning starting with the first three batters of the game.

“The thought process was stand on the line because that’s all she throws is outside, all day long,” Garza said. “If we stand on the line, we work outward and easily get the bat around the ball quicker.”

Mackin skated around trouble for four innings, but Oswego sophomore Jaelynn Anthony was up to the task as the foil.

Anthony (13-4) twice was on the short end of 7-0 losses to Minooka during the regular season, but on Monday held the Indians to single runs in the fourth and fifth. Anthony scattered eight hits and three walks, her fifth strikeout ending it.

How did she do it?

She’s hot at the right time, coming off back-to-back shutouts in sectionals.

“We were on today and my hitting helped,” Anthony said. “I’ve just been on a roll. I’m just in that zone. Good time and place to do it.”

Minooka had been in a zone, 34 runs in four playoff games leading up to Monday. But the Indians’ lone offense came on Mayson Carr’s double that scored Dziuba in the fourth and Addisonn Crumly’s double that brought in Karli McMillin in the top of the fifth.

Each team left 10 runners on base.

“She [Anthony] is just a solid pitcher,” Brown said. “We were barreling some more up the first two times. We just couldn’t get that bit hit. One of those days. Hats off to Oswego. They earned it.”

A win well-earned, and an emotional one.

As Garza received the supersectional plaque from Oswego Athletic Director Darren Howard, she teared up with a nod to her coaches and late Oswego softball coach Amanda Stanton.

“I love this group of girls,” she said. “We have coaches who lost coach Stanton a few years ago. It’s awesome to do this for them and for her in her memory.”