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NEW LENOX – The top two softball teams in Class 4A in the latest Illinois Coaches’ Association poll, Marist and Lincoln-Way Central, respectively, met Monday afternoon in a rematch of last season’s Class 4A supersectional at Rosemont.
Marist won that matchup and went on to finish second in the state.
The Knights (9-0) picked up a bit of revenge Monday, recording a 3-2 win over the Red Hawks when Ellie McLaughlin walked with the bases loaded, forcing in Ava Quinlan with the winning run.
The winning rally, oddly enough, was started with a strikeout.
Central’s Jalese Hays, who had hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second to put her team up 2-0, came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with one out. She struck out, but the ball got away from the Marist catcher, and Hays alertly ran to first, beating the throw. Quinlan followed with a walk, and Teagan Berkshire reached on an infield single to load the bases. Carly Karales hit into a fielder’s choice to second, as Bridget Barz, pinch running for Hays, was forced out at the plate. McLaughlin followed with a walk, and the Knights celebrated.
“It was so awesome to beat them,” said Hays, a senior who took last season off from playing high school ball to train and work on being recruited. “We have battled with them over the years, so it’s a great feeling to beat them.
“On the home run, I just swung nice and easy. Going around the bases was the best feeling.”
Hays’ homer in the second was the second of the inning for the Knights, as Kayla Doerre had launched one into the jet stream earlier in the frame.
On a normal day against a normal team, two runs would have been more than enough for Central ace Lisabella Dimitrijevic. But the wind was blowing out hard, and Marist is not a normal team. The Red Hawks’ Gabi Novickas caught up with a Dimitrijevic offering in the top of the fourth and it carried over the center field fence to make it 2-1. With one out in the top of the sixth, Marist’s Bree Hanik and Novickas each reached on an error and moved up on a wild pitch. Then, a passed ball allowed Hanik to score the tying run.
“Marist is an excellent team,” Lincoln-Way Central coach Jeff Tarala said. “They are well coached and they have great players. It’s the first time in my 13 years here that we have beaten them, and we were fortunate to do it.
“Kudos to our girls, for sure. They battled and battled. Kayla Doerre and Jalese Hays hitting those home runs was huge, and so was the way we fought through our mistakes in the field.”
Dimitrijevic finished with 13 strikeouts and allowed three hits and one walk. After relieving Gianna Hillegonds in the second inning, Soleil Tate of Marist allowed just one run on three hits over five innings.
Although they had given up the lead to a team that had historically had their number, there was no lack of confidence in the Knights’ dugout in the final at-bat.
“Coming into the seventh inning, we had a lot of confidence that we could do it,” Hays said. “When I struck out, I kept my head up and saw it get away so I ran to first. We want to keep pushing until the game is over, and it was a great feeling to get the win.
“Beating them will give us a lot more confidence the rest of the year. I hope we get to see them again, because that means we would both be at state.”
The sectionals the two teams play in feed into different supersectionals this season, so if there is a rematch, it would have to come in the state finals in Peoria.