5 straight for Burlington Central
Just call it one for the thumb.
As dominant as they've been all season, the Burlington Central softball team left no room for drama Thursday when the Rockets downed Marengo 4-0 to wrap up their fifth straight Big Northern Conference East Division championship and 13th conference title in program history.
In the process, BC (20-3, 10-0) ran its winning streak to 16 games, won for the 29th straight time in BN-East play and secured its ninth straight 20-win season.
To add to the record books senior Mackenzie Scott, who twirled a masterful 5-hitter with 9 strikeouts and just 1 walk, won her 60th career game against just 7 losses and lowered her ERA this season to 0.25. Her 9 Ks give her 196 for the season. Additionally, senior Kayla Oranger, who sparked the Rockets' 3-run fourth inning, notched her 200th career hit, tying her for 18th on the all-time IHSA career hits list. Oranger, who stole her 150th career base earlier this week, had two more swipes Thursday to give her 29 without being caught this season. Her 152 career stolen bases rank 13th in state history.
"Today we came out and played 99 percent perfect," said Rockets' coach Scot Sutherland, whose program is now 148-19 in the past five seasons and 257-120 in his 11-year tenure, adding to what is now a 591-211 program record (. 737 winning percentage) in the last 26 years.
"The first time we played (a 4-3 BC win on April 29) we both had the yips a little. Today we came out and played the way you want to be playing going into the postseason. I told them (Wednesday) there's no pressure on us; the worst we could be is co-champs. I thought we played very relaxed today."
Scott and Marengo junior Danielle Simons, who suffered her first loss after 16 wins, matched wits for two innings until the Rockets played some textbook softball in the third to score 3 runs. Oranger led off by beating out an infield single and promptly stole second and third. With one out, Sam Gruner tapped a ball down the first baseline and not only did Marengo's first baseman miss the tag on Gruner, but her throw home was too late to get the speedy Oranger and the Rockets had a 1-0 lead. Then, on Lindsay Lange's grounder to short, Marengo made a throwing error to set up a 2-run single from junior Ashley Scheffler, who was 3-for-3 on the day with 3 RBI, raising her batting average to an even .500 for the season.
"I think I'm hitting a lot better," Scheffler said. "We really wanted to beat (Marengo). This was our most important game. We just really wanted to beat them."
"Ashley had a great game today and she's been hitting real well for us all season," Sutherland said.
Oranger was more than pleased to be at the forefront of a big inning for the second time this season against Marengo (25-5, 8-2).
"It's very important to me," she said. "Obviously I've been struggling some this season but if I can contribute in big games like this it makes me feel good. Since it's our senior year we want to end on a good note and we didn't want to share conference."
The Rockets added a run in the fifth when Scheffler drove in Brittany Priest (2-for-4), who led off the inning with a bunt single, but with Scott (15-1) on top of her game it wasn't even needed. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed no Marengo runner farther than second base and three of the Indians' hits were of the infield variety while the other two were lost in the sun in right field.
"Everyone knew we had to win today," said Scott, who along with Sutherland agreed Thursday was her best game of the season. "There was no pressure on us but we still wanted to get that win and be undefeated in conference. There's a little rivalry with us and Marengo and we wanted to pull out the win before Stone City and the postseason."
Marengo coach Dwain Nance was realistic about the loss.
"We definitely got beat by a better team today," he said. "Mackenzie was very good today, we made some mistakes, and they took advantage. It just shows we have to work harder and get better. Speed kills and you saw that against our defense today. And Mackenzie Scott is a great pitcher and she showed that again today."
While neither coach would talk about a potential third matchup, which would be in the June 8 Class 3A NIU supersectional, Sutherland and the Rockets are looking forward to today, when they play defending Class 4A state champ Lincoln-Way Central, as well as Lincoln-Way East, in back-to-back games at the Stone City Jamboree in Minooka.
"If you want to be considered a good team to have to compete against good teams and that's what we're hoping to do," Sutherland said. "We can't worry about the name on the jersey, we just have to come out and play solid softball like we did today."