Softball: Montini brings home state title

EAST PEORIA, Ill. — Bell Alexander was in a serious ball-strike deficit in the top of the sixth inning Saturday afternoon.

But the Montini senior delivered in the clutch, slicing a hard single between the Washington shortstop and third baseman.

Lauren Latoria and pinch-runner Tia Sondej raced home on the two-out, 0-and-2 single to give Montini another pair of unearned runs in the championship game of the Class 3A softball tournament at Eastside Centre.

The Broncos added another unearned run moments later when Alexander scored on an infield throwing error.

Pitcher Brianna Clifton did the rest. The Montini sophomore ace stranded two Washington runners in the sixth and retired the side in order to preserve the Broncos' 4-1 victory. Montini had never reached a softball state final before this year.

Washington was the defending state champion, and the two schools entered the final day of the athletic school year with a combined 57-game winning streak.

“The (Washington) pitcher (Madi McCoy) was pitching on the outside, and I knew I had fast girls on second and third,” Alexander said. “That was my goal: to get it through the 5-6 hole. I was doing it for my team.”

It proved to be a disastrous sixth inning for Washington (37-2).

Emily Lezcano was hit by a pitch and Naomi Alonzo walked to set up the inning for Montini (37-3).

Lezcano scored when the Washington infield botched a sacrifice bunt by Latoria.

“We're a battling team,” Montini coach Mike Bukovsky said. “We have been doing it all year. In big-time moments we have been able to play some small ball. We have hit home runs. We were just a complete team.”

Up to that point McCoy (29-2) had been masterful for Washington, whose athletic teams have been embraced by schools from throughout the state after a devastating tornado ripped through the community less than two years ago.

The right-hander had 9 of her 10 strikeouts through the fifth inning.

But the free passes and errors doomed the Panthers' bid to repeat.

“You have to give credit to (Montini),” Washington coach Stephanie Ramsey said. “They did a great job in the batter's box. They came through in that inning.”

The Montini players erupted into a spontaneously celebration on the field after Clifton induced a routine grounder to second baseman Latoria to clinch the final out.

Remarkably, the Lombard school had never won a team state championship prior to the turn of the century. But the Broncos' title — joining 13 wrestling, six football and four girls basketball crowns — was the 24th for the school since 2000.

“This one is pretty special,” said Bukovsky, instrumental to several football and wrestling championships.

The first five innings resembled a classic showdown between the programs' starting pitchers.

The Panthers' Savannah Budd took complete advantage of the one miscalculation Clifton offered.

The Washington first baseman blasted a no-doubt home run deep over the right-field fence.

“It's how you come back from that home run,” said Clifton, who allowed 5 hits and a lone walk in improving to 22-1. “I made a mistake, and I came back from it.”

Montini had to get past one last obstacle in the Panthers' half of the fateful sixth.

But with the Broncos' Nikki Cuchran playing a no-doubles defensive set at third base, the sophomore snared a line drive in foul territory to leave two Washington runners on the bases.

Montini will enter next season on a 26-game winning streak after ending the Panthers' run at 32 straight.

In the Class 3A third-place game Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin defeated Carmel 14-4 behind a pair of Ashton Dyche home runs.