Softball: Morrow, Kaneland shut down St. Francis
Kaneland went from a small-ball softball attack to a long-ball offense in the space of a half inning.
The way Angela Morrow was pitching, the change was icing on the cake.
The Knights used a 9-run fifth inning to defeat St. Francis 12-0 in five innings at the Class 3A Montini sectional final Saturday.
"Here's what's good about this team, is that they did what we had to win," Knights coach Peter Goff said. "We had to play small ball today and we played small ball. And then we needed the long ball, we started cracking long balls.
"Was it our best performance out in the field and sometimes on the basepaths? No. But you know what? We just keep doing things and doing things and doing the little things that can get us where we're at."
The fifth-seeded Knights are moving on to a 4:30 p.m. Monday supersectional against Nazareth at Rosemont Stadium. The winner goes to the state semifinals next weekend at East Peoria.
"The ultimate goal every time is to get to state, and you know what?" Goff asked rhetorically. "These girls are just locked in and I'm very proud of them."
Morrow (16-2), a Wisconsin recruit, was as locked in as anybody. She allowed just 1 hit, a perfectly placed first-inning bunt by Shelby Winkelman that put runners on first and second base. A fielder's choice and strikeout got Morrow out of the inning.
"I definitely wanted to throw another shutout, but you can tell that they're a fast, scrappy team, so we just had to make sure that we kept them off the bases," Morrow said.
The Spartans' best chance to score came in the third inning, but second baseman Morgan Sikon threw out Carley Pasquale trying to score from third base on a groundball. One of Morrow's 11 strikeouts then got her out of the inning.
"Their pitcher was good, their team was good. They came up hitting. Just a good team and they should be at this level," Spartans coach Ralph Remus said of Kaneland.
Kaneland scratched across two runs in the first inning, leadoff hitter Rachel Goress scoring on a wild pitch and No. 2 hitter Alyson Jesionowski following on a Meg Cohrs groundout.
The Knights (23-8) scored their third run in the fourth inning, Mary Lynn Clausen coming in on a Goress groundout.
The fifth inning brought the onslaught, with catcher Paige Kuefler's two-out 3-run home run to center field the big blast. Nine runs came across on 8 hits in the inning.
"Everyone knows who we are now. There's no more hiding," Goff said.
"At 3-0, yeah, we're still in it because I think we're going to get some more at bats and put some pressure on them," Remus said. "We did threaten a couple of times with people on base and we couldn't finish. And they made some plays too to keep us out of big innings. I give them credit."
Not that the Spartans had any regrets.
"We had a great season. It's nice to be here. It's a shame it ends this way. We are still in the sectional finals, and I'm proud of the kids. We just hit a buzzsaw," Remus added.
Remus said the Spartans (24-5) will be rooting for Kaneland to go all the way.
"It makes us look better if they turn out state champs," he said. "I definitely will be their biggest fan the rest of the way."
Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz