Softball: Serena’s Maddie Glade almost perfect in 1A regional title victory

SERENA – Serena sophomore pitcher Maddie Glade was “locked in” from start to finish during Friday’s Class 1A Serena Regional championship game against Walther Christian.

Glade struck out 14 in a one-hitter to help lead the Huskers to a 7-0 win over the Broncos and Serena’s first regional title since 2014.

Glade threw 67 of her 79 pitches for strikes and fired strike one to 18 of the 23 batters she faced.

“We were able to get a couple runs in the very first inning and I think that helped me stay calm knowing we had the lead and now my job is to keep it.”

—  Maddie Glade, Serena sophomore pitcher

“To be honest, that’s not normal for me, but I guess I was just hyped up to do well,” Glade said with a giggle. “The biggest key for me was getting ahead in the count and then staying ahead. At times this season I’ve had some games where I pitched a lot from behind in the count way too much and bad things happened.”

Serena (21-8) advances to the Walther Christian Sectional semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Melrose Park, where it will play Saturday’s winner of the Grant Park Regional title game between Marquette Academy and Illinois Lutheran.

Walther Christian finished the season at 18-6.

“We were able to get a couple runs in the very first inning, and I think that helped me stay calm knowing we had the lead and now my job is to keep it,” Glade said.

The Huskers scored all the runs Glade would need in the first inning, starting with junior Paisley Twait’s two-out, no-doubt-about-it home run to straightaway center field off Broncos starter Mimi Rieger.

“That really got everybody going,” Serena junior center fielder Cali Edwards said. “The whole team was pumped up, and from that point on, I think we all played with just a little bit more confidence.”

Edwards made great running catches in each of the first two innings.

“Yep, I’ve been all over the place,” said Edwards, who has played in many fielding spots this season. “I really never know where I’m going to be in the field from game to game, but I’m good with it. I just know I have to show up and perform the best I can.”

After Twait’s big fly, Glade tripled to center and scored on the first of three hits off the bat of Makalya McNally.

In the third, Jenna Setchell lined a triple to right-center and scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0. Twait followed with a single to left, stole second, and scored on a McNally triple down the right field line.

Serena scored its final three runs in the fourth. Alexis Linder started the inning by being hit by a pitch, then after an out, Edwards poked a bloop single to right. RayElle Brennan followed with a perfectly executed bunt single up the third base line to load the bases.

Setchell then rifled a pitch into the right field corner to bring all three runners home with a double.

Glade allowed just two baserunners, one reaching on an error and the other a one-out single in the sixth by Walther Christian’s Selah Argueta. She struck out the in the fifth and sixth, while striking out the final Broncos’ batter looking to close out the triumph.

McNally finished 3 for 3 with two RBIs, while Setchell (three RBIs) and Twait (RBI) both had two hits. The Huskers had 10 hits, five for extra bases.

“Maddie was locked in,” Serena coach Kelly Baker said of her sophomore right-hander. “I thought she pitched awesome against La Salle-Peru last week, but today was hands down her best outing of the season. You could tell every time she would get the ball back from [catcher] RayElle [Brennan] she was ready to go.

“Getting the two runs right away, especially Paisley’s home run, I thought calmed any collective nerves we may have had. I felt like we were very disciplined at the plate and did a great job of taking what the pitcher gave us and hitting the ball where it was pitched.”