Softball: Stevenson's best effort sinks Mundelein
Perry Wilhelm tossed an unofficial game ball to Riley Housinger. The eyes of Stevenson's bespectacled softball coach then scanned the rest of the players on his team, grinned and realized he needed more game balls.
Telling his players it was one of their best games of the season, Wilhelm saw his Patriots beat Mundelein and his son, Mustangs coach Brett Wilhelm, 6-1 in a Class 4A regional semifinal at Stevenson on Thursday. Housinger pitched a complete-game 4-hitter, and the trio of Emma Oriatti, Mic Faunce and Gwen Heilman combined for 10 of the Patriots' 14 hits.
"It was a pretty good one," Housinger said of her performance. "We did very well as a team, our hitting. All around, it was a very good game for us."
It was good enough for No. 9 Stevenson (14-18) to advance the Patriots to Saturday's 11 a.m. final on their home field against top-seeded Libertyville (27-5). Stevenson lost to No. 8 Mundelein in eight innings and then on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh during regular-season action.
At least Brett Wilhelm didn't lose a family bet.
"No dinner for him," he joked of his dad. "He can get his own dinner."
Mundelein (15-17) got its only hits from Olivia Michalski, Jordyn West, Molly Podraza and Kaityln Griffin, who doubled with one out in the sixth and scored on a two-out error. The Mustangs put their leadoff hitter on base in the first and fifth innings, but both times Patriots catcher Mic Faunce picked off the runner after an unsuccessful bunt attempt.
"The one thing that doesn't show up in the stats is that Mic calls all the pitches," Perry Wilhelm said. "As the season's gone on, she and Riley have done a great job. (Mundelein's) hitters were off-balance."
Stevenson's hitters were locked in.
No.-2 hitter Oriatti went 4-for-4. She had a first-inning double, RBI single in the Patriots' 3-run third, another single in the fifth and an opposite-field homer off a trailer beyond the fence in right field leading off the seventh.
"Emma's just been on fire lately," Perry Wilhelm said. "I was telling Brett the other day, 'She's just a tough out.' And you got to pitch to her because you got Mic coming up behind her."
Faunce finished 3-for-4 with an RBI single, and Heilman was also 3-for-4 with a double from the No. 9 spot. Alyssa Pauly went 2-for-4, Anna Fossier singled in a run, and Gina Shanley smoked an RBI double to cap the Patriots' 3-run seventh.
"They didn't change their game plan. They hit," Brett Wilhelm said of the Patriots. "That's what they've done all year. Hats off the Housinger. She pitched a good game. Even the balls that we hit hard, they just made defensive plays. Today wasn't our day offensively, and I thought going into today's game we were ready to go."
Housinger struck out three, walked one and got help from her defense, which chalked up 9 groundball outs.
"We played very well defensively," Housinger said. "I think my drop curve today was working pretty well."