Elk Grove headed to state finals for first time since 1982
There will be one more softball battle between Elk Grove and Fremd after all - and this time a trip to the Class 4A state championship game will be on the line.
Elk Grove punched its ticket to the state final tournament for the first time since 1982 Wednesday night with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Cary-Grove in front of more than 650 fans at the Judson University supersectional in Elgin.
The Grenadiers (36-4) will meet Mid-Suburban League rival Fremd at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the state semifinals at EastSide Centre in East Peoria.
Elk Grove and Fremd split their regular-season games, with Fremd winning the MSL championship game.
"This is wonderful," said elated longtime Elk Grove coach Ken Grams as his team posed for pictures and celebrated. "I knew going in this would be a pretty good team. A lot of young kids have picked it up and played some pretty good softball."
Elk Grove senior Stephanie Maday and Cary-Grove freshman Lindsay Efflandt locked up in a pitchers duel through 51/2 innings that yielded little in the way of offense.
And when the Grens finally did break the ice they did so with some help from the Cary-Grove defense.
With one out in the top of the sixth inning, back-to-back infield errors on ground balls hit by Devan Parkison and Megan Keegan set the table. A bloop single to left field by Krista Soesbe loaded the bases and with Kristen Cetkovic at the plate, a wild pitch scored Parkison with the game's first run.
Then, after Efflandt struck out Cetkovic for the second out, another infield error allowed pinch-runner Caitlin Kronforst to come home and make it a 2-0 game.
"I thought we hit the ball well but (Cary-Grove) made some nice plays," Grams said. "Then it's the little dinkers we scored the runs on. It's a crazy sport. I've been doing it 30 years and I don't have many answers but I have a smile tonight."
Maday had 1-hit the Trojans (32-7), who advanced farther than any team in program history, through five innings but a one-out walk to Elini Polites in the bottom of the sixth prompted Grams to bring in sophomore Dani Goranson. After Goranson walked Alexis Haley to put runners at first and second, she struck out Abbe Wienckowski and got Emma Gaulke to fly out to right field to end the inning.
Goranson gave up a hard infield single to Sarah Leudo in the bottom of the seventh but left her stranded at first base as the Grens closed it out and started packing for East Peoria. Maday and Goranson combined to allow just 3 hits on the night.
"Words can't describe this feeling," said the senior Maday. "We've been working at this for four years. We finally put it together and we're finally going downstate. We just kept saying 'believe'. We knew it was going to come. We're really excited and looking forward to playing (Fremd) again and getting some revenge."
Cary-Grove (32-7) got 3 baserunners as far as second base but that was it. And until the sixth, Elk Grove hadn't had a runner past first base against Efflandt, who finished her freshman season 28-4 with an ERA of 0.98.
"That young lady impressed me," said Grams of Efflandt. "She held her composure all night. She was very impressive."
Cary-Grove had a 17-game winning streak snapped with the loss, but the trip to the supersectional is a foundation for the young Trojans, who return six starters, to build on.
"It's a far cry from last year when we were 14-18," said 17th-year Trojans coach Tammy Olson. "I have nothing but great things to say about these kids and their efforts and the strides we made. They were fighters the whole way and they really put their hearts into it.
"Lindsay did a wonderful job tonight again. She hit her locations and kept them off balance. But their pitchers did an outstanding job. We had a tough time getting the bat on the ball effectively."