Kaneland caps best season with 3rd-place win at state softball
EAST PEORIA — Next stop for Angie Morrow is the University of Wisconsin.
But years from now, the Kaneland senior pitcher will be able to stop back at her high school alma mater and relive some fond memories.
She can visit the display that shows her Knights' softball team in the school's Hall of Fame.
Thanks to Morrow's 6-hitter and 5 strikeouts on Saturday, the Knights defeated Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffith 7-1 in the Class 3A third-place game on a warm and humid day at the Eastside Centre.
The Knights (25-9) earned their first trophy in program history under first-year coach Peter Goff, who also serves as the school's athletic director.
“That trophy will forever be there,” Goff said. “Ten years later this team will be in the Kaneland Hall of Fame and that is the ultimate respect you can get from your school.”
All teams had to respect Morrow this season.
The right-hander closed the season with an 18-3 record and will play in Madison next spring.
The Badgers may also want her to bat.
In a twist, Morrow hit in the No. 2 spot.
Prior to Saturday, she had a double in her only official at-bat all season.
“One of our players wasn't feeling that well,” Morrow said. “So I said, 'I'll hit. Why not?' We've got nothing to lose. It was just a fun thing to do for my final high school game.”
Sure enough, Morrow came through with a single in the Knights' fifth inning when they broke the game open with 6 runs.
After one out, Aly Jesionowski singled and Morrow followed with her base hit. Paige Kuefler reached on an error which allowed Jesionowski to score and gave Kaneland a 2-1 lead.
Kuefler stole second and Meg Cohrs then singled off the right center field fence to drive home courtesy runner Rachel Urich.
“It pumps you up when you see the girls in front of you hitting,” Cohrs said. “Then everyone starts hitting.”
Morgan Weber continued the momentum with a run-scoring double to right center. Morgan Sikon was hit by a pitch and later scored on a single by Mary Clausen.
Until that inning, Kaneland's only run was unearned when Clausen reached on an error in the fourth and Cohrs scored to tie the game at 1-1.
Sacred Heart-Griffin (34-8) had gained its 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth when freshman Clare Dodson scored with two outs in an infield groundout.
Cohrs, who came into the state finals batting .491, ended up 3-for-3 with 2 runs.
“Meg has some of the best power numbers in the state,” Goff said. “Morgan (Weber) is such a good clutch hitter and Paige (Kuefler) is one of the best catchers in the state.
“I felt Angie deserved to be first team all-state. It's hard to believe there are four other pitchers better than her. Her ERA was 0.70 for the postseason and 0.65 when she came down here. It's just unbelievable what all our girls have accomplished.”
They accomplished what no other softball team had done at Kaneland — win a trophy.
“Even though we weren't first or second, we were still third out of multiple teams,” Weber said.
“From the beginning of the season to now, no one ever expected this,” Cohrs said. “I'm just really proud of all our girls.”
Goff couldn't have been prouder, either.
“I told the girls that we were going to fight to the end, just like on Friday (2-1 loss to Marengo on Friday),” Goff said “When we got down 1-0, we could have pouted. But these girls came right back and scored. I couldn't be prouder.”
Even through the first three innings of the scoreless game, Goff was not disappointed in his team's offense.
“We were making contact,” he said. “And if you make contact, sooner or after, things will happen. Angie (Morrow) did a good job of just buckling down and the rest of our girls did what they had to do.”