Softball: Downers Grove South blanks Geneva

Geneva catcher Katie Keller crushed the third-inning changeup from Downers Grove South pitcher Randi McKay an estimated 250 feet.

The ball landed near a pine tree in foul territory.

That was the hardest-hit ball off McKay and indicative of Geneva's fortunes Saturday.

McKay fired a one-hit shutout and struck out 12 as the fourth-seeded Mustangs knocked off the fifth-seeded Vikings 5-0 to win the Class 4A Downers Grove South softball regional title.

Downers South (26-6) will play top-seeded Plainfield North on Tuesday in an Oswego sectional semifinal.

"She definitely had a nice changeup that got a couple of us," Keller said of McKay. "She was throwing changeup for first-pitch strikes to lefties.

"I did get a hold of one of them, but she liked to paint the outside corner and give me a lot of change-ups. Some of us also had a tough time laying off the high stuff, so I'm assuming she had some good spin."

McKay, a junior who has committed to Wisconsin-Green Bay, took a no-hitter into the sixth before Emily Viebrock broke it up with a leadoff single. But McKay retired the next six batters to end Geneva's season.

McKay also had an RBI double in the third inning to score Maggie Greco, who had tripled, to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead. That proved to be a turning point.

"I got that double and I gave my team another run," McKay said. "We needed insurance runs, so to be able to help my team out was great and then we got going and I felt like I could relax a little bit. It took off the pressure because they're a good-hitting team."

The Vikings (22-8) did manage to get 8 runners on base, including one in each of the first 6 innings. McKay walked 2 and hit 2 batters, but she fanned Geneva pitcher Ali Dierks with 2 on and 2 out in the third and struck out Anilise Bragg with the tying runs on to end the fourth.

"We did have some chances," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "We were struggling to string any real solid contact together on a consistent basis and we were behind, it seemed like, 0-2 on a lot of at-bats and we had to battle from there.

"The balls that we hit hardest all day were right at them that they caught. We had a couple of real nice shots that maybe could have turned into runs."

Instead, the Mustangs tacked on a run in the fourth on an RBI single from Kaitlyn Wilson. Maggie Greco, who went 3-for-4 with 2 runs, and Sydney Rau added run-scoring singles in the sixth for Downers South.

Despite the loss, the Northern Illinois-bound Keller, who picked a runner off first and threw out another trying to steal, was happy with Geneva's performance this season.

"I'm very proud of what we did this year," Keller said. "It was a good (way) to (end her prep career).

"We played a good game on Wednesday and this was a good game, too. We held them, but they got some key hits that we didn't get early in the game."