Morrison 6, St. Edward 4
St. Edward made it clear from the get-go that it wasn't going to roll over for powerful Morrison on Monday in the Class 2A softball supersectional at Benedictine University in Lisle.
Scratching and clawing their way back from deficits all day, the Green Wave came up just short in the end, falling to the Fillies 6-4 in eight innings and coming up a win short of reaching the state finals in East Peoria this weekend.
Morrison (23-4), which finished fourth in Class A last year, will make its second straight trip to EastSide Centre, and will play the winner of today's Champaign supersectional game between Beecher and Stanford Olympia in Friday's state semifinals.
"I think we proved today that we're just as capable as anybody of being down there," said first-year St. Edward coach Mike Rolando.
The Wave (18-12) pounded out 12 hits and struck out only seven times off Morrison senior Ashley Patten, who hadn't allowed a run in the postseason and had 49 strikeouts in her last four games.
But while the offense was clicking, the Wave left nine runners on base and the defense had a not-so-good day, as 4 of Morrison's 6 runs were unearned.
Erin McGraw (10-7) was the tough-luck losing pitcher, but she held Morrison in check for the better part of the day until giving way to freshman Sarah Field with two on and no outs in the top of the eighth. Field was greeted by a hard-hit double from Jordan Mann that plated the game-winning runs.
"McGraw pitched an awesome game against a team that had whooped up on Byron (14-0) and whooped up on Genoa (10-0)," said Rolando of his senior right-hander, who allowed 7 hits.
Morrison scored twice in the top of the first, using a throwing error to open the gate. But St. Edward came back in the bottom of the inning and showed it wasn't intimidated by the 6-foot Patten. Junior Stephanie Werner laced a one-out double to left field and scored from second when senior Megan Pozezinski beat out an infield roller with two outs.
Then, McGraw and Patten settled into a pitchers duel that had the Fillies still ahead 2-1 when they came to bat in the top of the sixth.
Unfortunately for St. Edward, another throwing error paved the way for 2 more Morrison runs and the Fillies took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
The never-say-die Wave, however, weren't going down without a fight. Kristina Brockner reached on an error, Celeste VonAhnen singled and Megan Smith singled to drive home courtesy runner Madeline Foehringer to make it 4-2. After a pop flyout, Werner (4-for-5) drove in VonAhnen and after a strikeout, Pozezinski (2-for-4) legged out an infield hit for the second time, scoring Smith with the tying run. But with runners at second and third Patten, got a strikeout to end the inning.
Even down 6-4 in the bottom of the eighth, St. Edward didn't give up. Kelly Knott beat out a one-out bunt, Werner got another hit and Kristi Knott walked to load the bases. After Patten got a strikeout for the second out, Diaz hit a screamer up the middle that Patten was able to deflect with her glove, pick up and throw to first in time to get Diaz and send the Fillies to East Peoria.
"I know some of the girls might think about the one or two things they did wrong today, but what they need to remember is the hundred things they did right all season to get here," Rolando said. "We had a lot of runners on base and we were hitting that girl up and down the lineup, we just had some uncharacteristic defensive mistakes today."