Cary-Grove's Efflandt outduels Grant's Brugioni

The young gun bettered the savvy senior Saturday at the Class 4A Cary-Grove softball regional championship game.

Cary-Grove freshman Lindsay Efflandt spun a 2-hitter and won her 25th game of the season as the Trojans downed Grant 1-0, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning on a passed ball.

"I feel great," said the poised Efflandt, who struck out 15 and walked only one. "That win was definitely a team effort. We all treat each other equally on this team. We just want to keep working hard and keep going."

The Trojans, who won their first regional title since 2007 and the sixth in program history, will take their 30-6 record to the Huntley sectional on Wednesday to face Elgin (12-25).

"It's a wonderful feeling," said 17th-year Cary-Grove coach Tammy Olson. "These girls deserve it. They work so hard. They've had a great season and they want to keep it going."

For Grant and senior standout Brie Brugioni it was a third straight tough loss in a regional final.

"I'm just sad," said Grant coach Mike Dolezal. "It's the same way we lost 1-0 to Barrington last year - on a fluke play. The girls played their hearts out. That's three straight years we've lost in the regional finals. We just can't seem to get over the hump. It's a tough loss for the girls. I wish I had a storybook ending for them but I don't."

Instead, that storybook ending belonged to Cary-Grove. After Efflandt and Brugioni battled back and forth the whole game - they combined for 26 strikeouts - the Trojans finally made something happen in the bottom of the eighth.

Elini Polites led off the inning with a single and would have been the winning run on Alexis Haley's triple, but Polites was called out for leaving early when she tried to steal second. But Haley came up and laced a 2-0 pitch to the left-field corner and the speedster easily made it to third. Then, with Abbe Wienckowski at the plate Brugioni threw a pitch that glanced off the glove of the Grant catcher and Haley scooted home with the winning run.

"I was nervous but I was ready to hit," said Haley, who had 2 of Cary-Grove's 5 hits in the game. "She was pitching me outside the whole game so I knew what to expect. I have confidence in Abbe and I knew their pitcher was getting rattled."

Neither team had much of a chance to score as Efflandt and Brugioni were next to unhittable. Grant (22-15) got only one runner as far as third base, that in the person of Hannah Graham, who ripped a two-out double in the top of the seventh and went to third on a passed ball. But Efflandt got a called third strike to end the threat. The Bulldogs had only three other baserunners, none of whom got past first base.

"Both pitchers did an awesome job today," said Olson. "Lindsay had another tremendous game. She really took control of it. She looks stronger and stronger every day. She's got her tournament face on now. She's very settled inside and very determined.

Cary-Grove got doubles from Wienckowski in the first and Efflandt in the second and had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fifth but managed little else against Brugioni, who struck out 11 and walked one.

"She pitched her heart out and we're going to miss her," said Dolezal. "That was quite a pitcher's duel."

"We were definitely in it until the end and we fought our hardest," said Brugioni, who will play at Trinity Christian University next year.