Softball: Ottawa crushes Morris, clinches 1st I-8 conference championship

OTTAWA – It’s hard to believe that a well respected and competitive softball program such as Ottawa’s has never won a conference championship.

That changed Monday afternoon. The Pirates earned their first conference title in school history by walking off with a decisive 10-0, six-inning Interstate 8 Conference victory over Morris on Senior Day at King Field.

Ottawa ( 21-5, 13-1 I8) wins at least share of the crown with LaSalle-Peru (12-1 I8), which still has one more conference game against Morris on Wednesday.

“I’m pretty sure this is the first conference championship in the history of Ottawa softball which seems kind of strange to imagine after all the fine teams that came before this one,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “It’s been something that’s been on our kids’ goal list, and they’re very proud to have accomplished such a big milestone, especially on a day that honored our four seniors.”

“It’s been something that’s been on our kids’ goal list and they’re very proud to have accomplished such a big milestone.”

—  Adam Lewis, Ottawa softball coach

McKenzie Oslanzi, Ryleigh Stehl, Brynne Sember and Grace Carroll all were honored before the game and Oslanzi and Stehl took center stage. They helped guide the Pirates, ranked fifth in this week’s Illinois Coaches Association Class 3A poll, past No. 18 Morris.

Oslanzi (6 IP, 3 H, 5 K, 0 BB) raised her pitching record to 15-4 with the victory.

The Eastern Illinois recruit also had three hits with two doubles and one RBI.

Classmate Stehl enjoyed the biggest day at the plate with three hits and four RBIs including a walk-off, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth that locked up Ottawa’s first league championship.

“With it being senior day and all the big conference things on the line, I wanted to show everybody how well I could compete,” Stehl said. “I just went out there today and hit the ball hard.”

Morris (21-11, 8-5 I8) got only three singles off of Oslanzithe by Ella Davis, Kylee Claypool and Alyssa Jepson, with coach Jen Bamonte choosing the rest No. 1 starting pitcher Davis for later this week and the postseason.

“We are playing strategically with nothing left on the line for us in conference at this point, and we may see Ottawa again in the regional championship game next week,” Bamonte said. “So we didn’t want to give them any more chances to see Ella (Davis) before then. We hope the strategy pays off and we’ll meet again. But credit to Ottawa for earning a great conference championship throughout the season.”

Morris starting pitcher Elaina Vidales (4 IP, 6 R, 8 H, 3 K, 1 BB), who suffered the loss, allowed a run in the bottom of the first. Hailey Larson, who had two hits, led off with an infield single and scored two outs later on Stehl’s run-scoring double to the fence in left that gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead after one inning.

The Pirates added three more in the bottom of the third when Stehl stroked an RBI single before Maura Condon delivered a two-run base hit to left that put the Pirates on top 4-0 through three.

Ottawa was ahead 6-0 soon thereafter when Zulee Moreland and Oslanzi had RBIs in the bottom of the fourth.

The Pirates tacked on two unearned runs in the fifth before they walked off the win an inning later.

With two gone, Oslanzi doubled to the fence in left while Kendall Lowery reached on an error. All that was left was for Stehl to bring her teammates home with the ending blast to left that sealed history for Ottawa.

“I knew we needed two runs for the game to be over, and I just went up there and made some solid contact,” Stehl said. “It was a great day for me, our team and our school. But we’ve still got much more to do next week in the playoffs.”