Softball: Downers Grove South falls in semifinals
EAST PEORIA, Ill. - Reganne Camp was as tough on the Downers Grove South softball hitters as the weather was Friday at the EastSide Centre softball complex.
The Normal West senior, bound for Seton Hall, used a devastating changeup to handcuff the Mustangs in the opening Class 4A semifinal.
Camp scattered 7 hits and terminated the best Downers South hope - the bases loaded with none out in the sixth inning - to lead the Wildcats to a 3-1 victory.
"(The changeup) is my best pitch," Camp said. "With two strikes I kept going to it."
Downers South (35-4) had its 14-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
The Mustangs' starting pitcher, Arkansas-bound senior Caroline Hedgcock, also experienced a new sensation this spring in dropping her first decision (13-1).
"That's just how it is in softball," said Hedgcock, who had 2 of the Mustangs' 7 hits.
Like Camp, Hedgcock went the distance; 2 of the 3 Wildcats' runs were unearned as the Downers South standout surrendered 6 hits while fanning five.
Normal West freshman Jess Jacobs scored on a two-out error in the second inning to break a scoreless tie.
Hedgcock and Nicole Bowman both reached in the Mustangs' fourth inning, but Camp stranded pinch-runner Amanda Ray and Bowman to extinguish the threat.
Downers North would be further hampered by the Wildcats' ensuing at-bat.
Normal West (29-9) pushed across a pair of runs on a double steal compounded by a Downers South throwing error.
"We made some (defensive) mistakes," said Downers South coach Ron Havelka, who will manage his final game at 5 p.m. Saturday in the third-place contest against DeKalb.
Kristin Lea gave Downers South an emotional lift.
First, the senior had a remarkable catch of a lined shot to end the Wildcats' fifth inning on an unassisted double play at first base.
The senior then singled home Rebecca Bluder in the Mustangs' fifth.
"(The double play) is a play I have played out in my mind a thousand times," Lea said. "I saw the ball (off the bat), caught it and stepped on the bag."
Downers South later took advantage of back-to-back Normal West mental mistakes to load the bases to start its sixth inning.
But Camp stranded Megan LoBianco, Bowman and Lindsey Hermann with a pair of strikeouts and an infield grounder.
"I give credit to that pitcher," said Havelka, who will enter his finale with a career record of 703-169. "We couldn't manufacture a way of getting (the runners) in."
"(Camp) had a really nice changeup," Lea said.
"It was a big game for all of us," Hedgcock added. "I'm still very proud of the team. We have accomplished something that not many teams have been able to."