Brottman, Fremd come up big in clutch

Jim Weaver is taking his softball team to the same place he did in his first season as the Fremd coach eight years ago.

East Peoria for the state finals.

This time, his Vikings are guaranteed of coming home with a state trophy because they are part of the Class 4A Final Four - thanks to a 3-1 victory Monday night over Prairie Ridge before a large turnout in the Barrington supersectional.

On that last visit south in 2002, the Vikings lost 1-0 in a quarterfinal to eventual state champion Moline in the Class AA tournament.

On Friday, the Vikings (32-4) will face Loyola (35-2) in the 4:30 p.m. semifinal at Eastside Centre.

Fremd junior ace Lena Brottman (20-3) fired a 3-hitter with 10 strikeouts, including 3 to end the game with runners on first and third.

"I could only dream it would end like this," said Vikings senior first baseman Jessica Tackett (2-for-3), who played on Curt Pinley's volleyball team that came within one match of reaching the state finals last fall. "From the beginning of the season, we had this as a goal. Every single person prepared for it in the off-season. Now we want to keep it going."

Tackett got the Vikings going Monday with a bloop single to left to start the top of the second inning.

Kelly Voigt, the Vikings junior third baseman who made some nice defensive plays, followed with a bunt single, and Alexa Cinquegrani sacrificed the runners to second and third with a bunt.

Designated player Casey Latal belted a sacrifice fly to right to score pinch runner Megan Hubbard from third base, and Voigt was able to come home on an error on the play to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead in the second inning.

"I just wanted to get my bat on the ball enough to get the runs in," Latal said. "I'm so excited. I never thought we'd end up doing this. I'm so excited we did."

Tackett played her part again in the third inning when her double to left center with two outs brought home Kristine Werling, who had reached on an error to lead off the inning.

"I give so many props to Casey for that flyball," said Tackett, who will be studying at Northwestern University in the fall. "She knew we needed either a soft grounder or a sacrifice fly - and she got the job done.

Brottman also got the job done after giving up a run in the first inning when sophomore catcher Laureen Seegers singled to left with two outs to bring home classmate Lexi Wachman, who led off with a bloop single to right.

"Lena wasn't real sharp in the first innings, leaving a few pitches over the plate," Weaver said. "But she came back and pitched well the rest of the game. She really gutted it out those next six innings."

After a leadoff walk to junior Katie Schillinger to start the second, Brottman retired the next 15 batters until Seegers reached on an error to start the seventh.

Sophomore Erin Smith followed with a towering single off the fence in right-center, which enabled Seegers to reach third base.

But Brottman came up with the 3 biggest strikeouts of her career to end the game.

What did she tell herself after Smith's big blast?

""Breathe," Brottman said. "I just knew I had to calm down. After that first inning, I just began to focus and said to myself if they're going to hit the ball, it's going to be off the pitches I want them to hit."

With runners on first and third in the final inning, Weaver went to the mound.

"I just told her she had to get ahead of the hitters like she had been most of the game," he said. "And we talked about the runner on third would not hurt us."

Prairie Ridge, which won the Fox Division of the Fox Valley Conference with a 15-0 record, finished 33-7, while junior pitcher Joanna Turner ended at 31-5. She threw a 5-hitter as Lauren Zaworski and Tess Dinterman also had singles for Fremd.

"Joanna had a great year," said Wolves coach Mike Buck. "She is one of he best competitors I've seen. I'm a football coach, too, and I know she had the toughness about her that made her so good. She made the pitches she had to."

Buck liked how Seeger's first-inning single got the Wolves on the board first.

"That was important to set the tone there," he said. "It proved we could play with them and that we could score runs."

But Brottman made sure there would be no more.

"The bottom line is if we pitch and play defense well (the Vikings committed only 1 error), we're going to win," Weaver said. "And I thought we did those things well.

"The girls deserve this. They've done everything we 've asked them to do this season and we told them if they did, they'd get there (East Peoria)."

Buck graduates four seniors from his team.

"I can't fault the effort of our players," he said. "Playing a 2-run catch-up game against Fremd is tough. And their pitcher is good."