Rockets, Hawks now get their shot

A year ago, everyone around area softball circles figured Burlington Central and Bartlett were a pretty safe bet to make it downstate.

Burlington had Erica Maisto back for her senior year and Bartlett had Lauren Wydra in the circle for her senior campaign. The Rockets rolled into sectionals 32-1 and the Hawks had made an unscathed 20-0 run through the Upstate Eight Conference season.

But the postseason softball gods were not kind to the Rockets and Hawks. BC lost in the sectional semifinals and Bartlett was upset in a regional championship game.

Saturday, those disappointments became a distant memory. Burlington downed Sterling 3-0 to win the Class 3A Rochelle sectional and Bartlett upended Upstate Eight champ St. Charles North 2-1 to win the Class 4A Lake Park sectional. Monday, the Rockets will take on Vernon Hills in the NIU supersectional and Bartlett will tangle with Naperville Central in the Benedictine super, leaving each one win away from the IHSA Final Four.

What better way to spend a weekend in East Peoria than watching the two best programs in the area play in the state finals. While neither team will overlook the task at hand on Monday, that trip to East Peoria now becomes more than just a remote possibility.

These two programs have taken a little different route to the Elite Eight, but they've made it nonetheless.

For Burlington, winning its first sectional title since 1993 is vindication, in a way, for all those years recently when they haven't. Like last year when they couldn't buy a timely hit and lost 1-0 in nine innings to Freeport. Or like 2006 and 2007 when they couldn't slay mighty Lake Park in Class AA sectional semifinals. Or like 2004 and 2005 when really good Dakota teams ended their season in Class A sectionals.

It's also vindication of sorts for Rockets coach Scot Sutherland, who takes his fair share of ribbing from his travel ball buddies about not being able to "win the big one".

"People can say what they want to say," said Sutherland, now 246-99 in his 10 years at the helm of the program. "I don't go home at night worrying about what other people think. I always felt we were one year behind. If we were that Class A school one more year, could that have been the year?"

Sutherland has coached for many years in the Stone City Sharks travel ball program and he knows full well the urging he and assistant coaches Wade Maisto and Lowell Oranger have done with BC players over the years to play summer ball is what has helped his program more than anything.

"I just have them from March to May," he said. "I'm a summer coach and I realize how much time they spend on their games in the summer and how many good people are helping them in the summer. We've had some awfully good players come through here the last 6-7 years. A lot of people have had a hand in it."

Saturday's win can't really be called bittersweet to Sutherland, but he did feel for some of his past players that didn't get a chance to experience a sectional title, none more so than Brooke Porto and Erica Maisto, last year's graduates.

"You felt for those guys last year," said Sutherland, whose own intensity has also helped BC become the program it is. "A lot of people had us downstate last year. This year things have gone our way so far. We talked to these seniors about what they wanted their legacy to be in this program. They've had four great years. Now we just need to keep riding this and let the chips fall where they may."

For senior pitcher Mackenzie Scott, who tossed a no-hitter at Sterling Saturday, things couldn't get much better. She, Brittany Priest and Kayla Oranger have all spent four years on Central's varsity and there's no better way to end your high school career than playing on the big stage.

"With Britt and Kayla, we've been up here since our freshman year and I'm just so excited for everyone," said Scott, who played for the ASA 18U Major national champion Lemont Rockers last summer. "This is one of the best years for me and we're just coming together as a team more and more."

"It means a lot," said Priest, who along with Oranger, as well as several of Bartlett's players, played for the Bartlett Silver Hawks team that won the ASA Northern National championship last summer. "We've been trying to get over this sectional first game hump and we did that. But we weren't stopping at that first hump. We want to get downstate."

Downstate is something Bartlett experienced in 2007 when the Hawks made it to the Class AA quarterfinals. And even though last year didn't turn out as planned, the Hawks came into this season with high hopes. But a regular season of suspect defense caused them to only be a No. 7 seed in the postseason. But as they say, everyone is 0-0 when the state tournament starts, and now the Hawks have beaten some of the best pitching you'll find in four straight games and here they are one win from East Peoria. And they won Saturday's sectional against a team they had lost to 6-1 twice during the season.

"I reminded the girls before the game that two years ago when we went to state we had almost the same scenario," said Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith. "We were in the Lake Park sectional finals playing the Upstate Eight champs (Lake Park)."

While last year's conference title was gratifying, it's the state tournament that really means something in the end.

"I would trade that 20-0 last year for a further advancement in the state tournament in a heartbeat," Wolfsmith said. "This year we knew we were playing one of the toughest schedules in the state and we didn't play up to snuff. This is vindication in a big way. To be able to sit there and say we're the last Upstate Eight team standing is great for our team. You couldn't have picked a much harder road than the one we've traveled."

Sutherland, Wolfsmith, the Rockets and the Hawks all hope their travels end up in East Peoria next weekend. If they do, there will be some people, including yours truly, putting some travel ball coaching on the back burner for another week.

But I can't think of a better reason to do so than to see the best two programs in the area, with the best two coaches in the area, playing for a state championship.

And, hey, if Bartlett would end up playing Prairie Ridge and another guy who is one of the best coaches around in Mike Buck, it would be an even sweeter weekend.

jradtke@dailyherald.com