Burlington Central falls short in 3A semifinal
EAST PEORIA - Burlington Central's softball team had not been seriously tested defensively coming into the Class 3A state semifinals at EastSide Centre here Friday morning.
And in the end, that may have cost the Rockets a shot at the state championship.
Oak Forest parlayed 4 Rocket errors and 4 walks into 4 runs and went on to beat Central 4-0.
The Bengals (30-4) take on Chatham Glenwood (28-8) in the title game at noon today. Burlington Central (25-6) will play Glenbard South (24-13) for third place at 9:30 a.m. Glenwood beat Glenbard South 4-2 in Friday's other semifinal.
"I never thought we'd have 4 errors," said BC coach Scot Sutherland, whose program is in the Final Four for the first time.
"We played very nervous out there and I didn't think we were. I thought everybody was relaxed."
Throughout the postseason, the Rockets had relied on senior Mackenzie Scott's strikeouts, more than anything, to make it downstate. Coming into Friday's game Scott had not allowed a run in the postseason and of the 102 outs the Rockets had recorded with her pitching, 68 had come via the K.
But on Friday, Oak Forest only whiffed seven times against Scott (20-3) and the Bengals put pressure on the Rockets' defense that, simply, they didn't handle.
"Our defense had to play a lot more than they've been used to and we didn't get it done," Sutherland said. "Things don't always happen the way you're used to them happening."
The Rockets also struggled on offense against Oak Forest sophomore Emily Norton, although BC did have its chances. The Rockets only got 3 hits - 2 of them from senior standout and Texas-El Paso signee Kayla Oranger - but Oak Forest also made 4 errors, giving the Rockets good chances to score in three innings. But BC left 11 runners on base, including the bases loaded twice. Norton (28-3) struck out 13 and hit 2 batters. Coming into the game, BC had struck out just 19 times in its five previous postseason games combined.
"It was hard seeing how many runners we had on and nobody could come up with that big hit," said Oranger, who will graduate as one of the state's all-time leaders in hits, runs scored and stolen bases. "She was a good pitcher and she had us chasing her riseball. And (defensively), we haven't had many runners on base against us lately and we just couldn't handle it."
Each team left the bases loaded in what Sutherland called a "wild" first inning.
"I thought we'd score a couple early runs like we had been lately but it didn't happen," Sutherland said.
Oak Forest broke through with a run in the bottom of the third. The Bengals loaded the bases and, with one out, the Rockets made a throwing error on Hayley Swanson's infield grounder, allowing Amanda Sheppard, who had singled, to score.
The Bengals then made it a 2-0 game in the fourth when Norton drew a two-out walk, stole second, stole third, and came home on another throwing error.
The Rockets let another golden opportunity to score slip through their fingers in the top of the fifth. Abby Morrow coaxed a leadoff walk out of Norton and Oranger beat out a bunt single. With one out, Oak Forest made a throwing error on Sam Gruner's grounder to load the bases. But Norton got tough and struck out BC's 4 and 5 hitters to end the threat.
"She's a very good pitcher and we didn't make the adjustments we needed to make," Sutherland said.
The Bengals added 2 runs in the bottom of the inning to put the game away. Cassie Bilotto walked with one out and after a strikeout, it appeared BC had gotten out of the inning with a flyout from Swanson. But the Rockets were called for obstruction, paving the way for Emily Naegele to slice a 2-run triple down the right-field line.
Norton allowed a Haley Albamonte single with two outs in the sixth and BC had Oranger (single) at third and Lange at first (reached on an error) in the top of the seventh when Norton got a called third strike to end the game.
"She was a good pitcher and she had a lot of movement," said Scott, who allowed 5 hits. "They got some timely hits and we made some errors. I'm kind of at a loss for words. It's disappointing. We knew we had to step it up today. They did and we didn't."
Which leaves the Rockets playing for the third-place trophy today.
"We can come back and get a win and take third," Oranger said. "That would be nice to do."