Softball: St. Charles North battles but falls to Oak Park
It may not have been the end result the St. Charles North softball team had hoped for but the North Stars walked off the field with their heads held high - and rightfully so.
SCN battled top-ranked and defending state champion Oak Park-River Forest to the final pitch Monday night before falling 5-3 in the Class 4A Leyden supersectional at The Ballpark at Rosemont.
"You have to be near perfect to beat a team like that," said SCN coach Tom Poulin of the 35-1 Huskies, who have not lost to an Illinois team since Downers Grove South beat them 4-1 on April 15, 2016, a stretch of 59 straight games.
"Our goal was to win but we wanted to make (OPRF) fight," Poulin continued. "I'm just really proud of this group. They were competitive and they can call themselves champions."
Oak Park will take on Barrington in the 3 p.m. state semifinal at Eastside Centre in East Peoria on Friday. Oak Park defeated Barrington 3-2 in the 2015 third place game. Barrington downed Warren 5-2 in Monday's Barrington supersectional.
The Huskies, who had allowed just 1 run this postseason, held a 5-1 lead after five innings and left-hander Chardonnay Harris had given up just 2 hits as her team scored 3 unearned runs off North Stars junior Jill Waslawski.
"We made a couple mistakes," Poulin said. "And with (Harris) you can't chase the riseball. The second and third time through I thought we were better at laying off it."
The North Stars (21-10) scored their first run in the third inning to make it a 3-1 game. Grace Quinn led off with a bunt single after the Auburn-bound Harris had struck out the first six batters. Quinn advanced to second on a single by senior Maddie Webb then scored on an infield error on a Natalie Walters grounder.
Oak Park added single runs in the third and fourth innings to move ahead 5-1, but SCN wasn't done battling.
Walters and senior Jordyn Wolfe led off the top of the sixth with singles. With senior Allison Moberg at the plate, Walters stole third and Wolfe took second. Moberg and Waslawski followed with back-to-back sacrifice fly outs and suddenly the North Stars were within striking distance, down just 5-3.
"We thought if we could put it in play on this (turf) surface and against a defense that hadn't been tested much in the postseason that good things would happen," Poulin said.
After Waslawski took care of business in the bottom of the sixth, SCN had one last chance to pull off the upset - and the North Stars made Harris and the Huskies work until the final pitch.
With one out, Webb laced a double to center field, bringing the tying run to the plate. But Harris, who allowed 5 hits for the first time this season, was able to get a comebacker and then her 14th and final strikeout of the night to send the Huskies to the state final tournament for the 12th time under 25th-year head coach Mel Kolbusz.
Waslawski, a junior, finished the night allowing 8 hits with 4 strikeouts and 4 walks.
"They are a fantastic team," Waslawski said of the Huskies. "But we overcame a lot this year and the team that walked off this field tonight is one of the greatest teams I've ever been on."
And after the way SCN started its season, not playing its first game until April 7, when most teams already had 8-10 games in, Poulin couldn't have been prouder of his team's effort, and especially that of his seven seniors - Aisien Kelly, Kelly Hannigan, Walters, Wolfe, Webb, Moberg and Samantha Vaca.
"We were the last team to get playing and to go from that and come out here and play in a supersectional tells you about the character of this team, and especially the senior leaders," Poulin said. "I couldn't be prouder of what this team accomplished this season."