Softball: Montini meets expectations with return to state
Montini has certain expectations. Advancing to the state softball semifinals has become one of them.
The Broncos realized their expectations with Monday's 8-3 victory against Lemont at the Class 3A Rosemont supersectional. Montini meets Mt. Zion in the 12:30 p.m. semifinal Friday at East Peoria's Eastside Centre.
"This is the second time and it just means the world. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I'm glad I get to do it twice," said senior pitcher Bri Clifton (22-5), a state champion in 2016 with the Broncos.
"You don't want to be anything but the best," shortstop Lauren Latoria added. "We got a taste of being No. 1. Once you get that taste there's nothing that compares to it, so you're always looking for that."
The Broncos' big-game experience surely helped them get out to a good start. They scored three times in the first inning, the big blow being a bases-loaded single by Latoria that scored Emily Alexander and Alyssa Filkowski.
"Whoever scores first usually wins the game," Latoria said, "so you've got to get the momentum on your side and keep it on your side."
Clifton scored on an error, one of 4 Lemont errors in the game.
"I just think we were more settled as we got through to the later innings with the pitchers. Maddy Wallace came in and did a nice job for us. She was more relaxed. I think nerves played a little part in the beginning too," Lemont coach Chris Traina said.
Alexander and Cuchran scored again in the bottom of the second inning, and Montini led 5-0.
"I don't feel as nervous," said Clifton, who will play next year at Nicholls State in Louisiana. "I feel more confident in myself since I've been here before."
Lemont (25-10) had one good inning with the bats, the third. The Indians scored 3 runs to cut the Montini lead to 5-3 briefly. Catcher Dani Stecyna drove in two runs with a triple to right center that one-hopped the wall.
"We were confident when we came out of that because we only allowed 3 runs and we still held a 2-run lead," Clifton said. "We just knew we had to get some more and grind to get those extra runs as insurance."
Montini (28-9) rebuilt its 5-run lead in the bottom half of the third inning. Cuchran, a DePaul recruit, showed why Lemont intentionally walked her twice, clobbering a bases-loaded drive off the top of the wall in center field near the 220-foot mark. Because a runner in front of her tagged up, the hit only went for a single.
Wallace, Lemont's third pitcher of the game, came in with the bases loaded in the third inning and struck out two Broncos to avoid further damage. She allowed only two Montini baserunners the rest of the game, intentionally walking Cuchran. Catcher Ashley Lynch reached in the sixth on an error.
Clifton allowed only a walk and a double after the third inning, setting Lemont down in order in the fifth and seventh innings to send the Broncos back downstate.
"It really stung last year. It really hurt that they didn't get back down, so they were very happy to do that," said coach Mike Bukovsky, also the Montini football coach, who will get no break with summer football camp starting Monday morning. Call it #Montiniproblems.
"It's part of who and what we are," Bukovsky added.