Marengo's Dionne denies Kaneland
EAST PEORIA - Looking for its first state finals win in school history, Kaneland's softball team fell just short on Friday afternoon at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria.
Marengo sophomore ace Mariah Dionne threw a 4-hitter to edge the Knights 2-1 in the Class 3A IHSA semifinal before 1,334 fans on a cloudy and humid day in central Illinois.
The Indians (35-6) scored their only runs in the top of the third inning while Kaneland pushed across one in the sixth when sophomore Aly Jesionowski singled to left center to score freshman Hannah Theobald with two outs.
The Knights got a two-out single by senior Morgan Sikon in the bottom of the seventh before Dionne secured the final out to send the Indians to the state title game for the third time in five years.
Kaneland, playing downstate for the first and only time since 2000, will play for third place at 10 a.m. today against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, who lost 5-3 to Washington in 10 innings.
"I'm very proud of the girls," said Kaneland coach Peter Goff, who in his first season directing the Knights has led them to 24-9 record.
"I told the girls these are the Knights I know. They're going to do everything they can do right to the very end."
Wisconsin recruit Angie Morrow (17-3) battled right to the end, limiting the Indians to 6 hits and striking out eight.
"Angie threw a good game," said Sikon, the Knights second baseman. "It was our lack of hitting that hurt us.
"We made their pitcher look good. I think we were nervous and let that get to us."
The game was scheduled for a 10 a.m. start but rain forced a four-hour delay.
"We were getting anxious," Sikon said. "We just wanted to play. Now we are waiting for the third-place game. We want to play our best in our last game of the season."
Sikon's two-out single to center kept the Knights hopes alive in the seventh before Dionne was able to finish off her 26th win in 29 decisions.
"She (Dionne, who had 3 strikeouts) threw outside and their right fielder (senior Veronica Ruelius) was really good. She made some nice plays," Sikon said.
One key play by Ruelius came in the bottom of the third when she caught freshman Hannah Theobald's liner and threw to first to double up the runner.
"We chased some of her (Dionne) pitches," said junior third baseman Meg Cohrs, who was 1-for-3. "But we did some good things against her, too. She was what we expected."
"She definitely did a good job," added Knights senior catcher Paige Kuefler. "But she is hit-able. She had a lot of movement but we did pick it up a lot of times."
Marengo scored its 2 runs after Morrow got the first two batters in the third inning on a grounder to Cohrs and a strikeout.
Indians No. 2 hitter Jessica Turner beat out an infield hit and Ruelius walked.
Dionne then singled to right for an RBI while the second runner (Ruelius) made it home from first on an error on the play.
"They (Marengo) followed through on our mistakes," Goff said. "Give them a lot of credit. They put the ball in play. And their pitcher hurt us 'off and on'.
"It was a good game between two evenly-matched teams. It's all about hitting and they got the timely hits."
"It was a tough loss," Sikon said. "But it's great our team got this far. I just wish we could have come out on top. But we'll get ready for the third-place game."