West Chicago 6, Wheaton Warrenville South 2

Twenty years from now the story of West Chicago's championship rally will be full of line drives and booming drives.

The true details get dusted away in the record books.

All the Wildcats care is that their 5-run rally in the bottom of the sixth to beat Wheaton Warrenville South 6-2 Wednesday in West Chicago clinched outright the school's first DuPage Valley Conference softball title since 2001.

"It's special," said freshman winning pitcher Mary Connolly, who also homered and started the decisive sixth. "It means the world to the seniors. I'm happy we could win it for them."

With WW South up 2-1, the bottom of the sixth started innocently enough as Connolly was plunked on the foot.

Then Chrissie Rovtar popped up a bunt that slid out of the glove of Tigers pitcher Virginia McAndrews, putting the tying runners on.

After a sacrifice bunt, Alyson Taddeucci singled to left, and Rovtar scored with the go-ahead run when the ball was misplayed in the outfield.

"She was pitching me in the first two at bats," Taddeucci said, "so I backed up, waited and got a hit."

Two more hit batters and an error later, Linnea Detrick put a cherry on the big inning with a 2-run double to left.

"Softball is like that," West Chicago coach Jim Schaudt said. "We took advantage of their mistakes. The pressure clearly shifted that inning and we got some solid hits."

"They had some nice hits," WW South coach Denise McCance said. "We did have a couple mistakes defensively, but they deserved to win."

WW South (16-12, 8-6), shut out by Connolly 1-0 earlier in the season, stunned the home crowd with 2 runs before two were out in the first inning.

Timmie Rappe drew a leadoff walk, Katy Frey singled and both scored on Meaghan Sullivan's single.

West Chicago (18-8, 11-3) drew within a run in the fourth, as Connolly launched the first pitch from McAndrews deep out over the left-field fence for her seventh home run.

Connolly (17-6) struck out eight. After loading the bases in the seventh, she ended the game on a comebacker that turned into a double play.

"It's a perfect way to end the DVC. We really showed our spirit today," said Schaudt, retiring at the end of the season. "We could have easily folded the tent and said we got a share of it. But the girls weren't going to have that."