Downers Grove South still on the run

Standing at third base with Marissa Mersch at the plate, Downers Grove South's Jenny Nichols wasn't tempted to try any bold baserunning.

Next thing Nichols knew, she was heading for home.

The Mustangs junior scored on a wild pickoff attempt from the catcher with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the seventh, giving No. 1 seed Downers Grove South a 4-3 win over No. 3 Lockport for the Class 4A Bolingbrook sectional championship.

"I was about 3 or 4 feet away from the bag. I was surprised she threw it," Nichols said. "I dove back and once it got past the third baseman I heard everybody screaming so I just took off."

Nichols singled to lead off the seventh and Alyssa Magallanes reached on an error. But Magallanes was doubled off first on a popped bunt, and Nichols only advanced from second to third on a wild throw to first on Chelsea Lavin's grounder.

"Coach was mad at me because I had a baserunning mistake on the last play. I shoulda been home," Nichols said. "He was like, 'Don't get picked off.' "

Mersch came into the last at-bat 0-for-4 on the day, but the Loyola recruit has 74 hits on the season.

"We weren't going anywhere with Mersch up," Downers Grove South coach Ron Havelka laughed. "We had two big baserunning mistakes in the last inning, but the bottom line is we won the game."

Downers Grove South (30-6) had Lockport pitcher Kelly Bowler on the ropes throughout the game but couldn't quite deliver the knockout punch.

Dana Gawel's single scored Danielle Trezzo for a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Mustangs left the bases loaded. A 2-run Jessica Rourke double pushed Lockport (29-9) ahead 2-1 in the third, but Downers Grove South got back an unearned run to tie in the fourth.

Lockport made it 3-2 in the top of the fifth and Downers Grove South tied it in the bottom of the inning, Gawel singling with one out and scoring on an Emma Topps sacrifice fly. The Mustangs had 8 hits and drew 6 walks but left 10 runners on base over the first six innings.

"Usually we hit well in clutch situations," Nichols said. "The pitcher did a great job holding us off."

"That was an uncharacteristic error for us at the end," said Lockport coach Marissa Chovanec, not using the rainy conditions as an excuse. "They had a lot of runners on base. When you do that at some point somebody's going to score."

Downers Grove South's sectional championship is its fourth under Havelka, who notched his 500th career win earlier this season, and the first title since the Mustangs advanced to state in 2006 and 2007. Next up is Moline on Monday at the Illinois State supersectional in Normal.

Mersch and Trezzo celebrated their first sectional title by dousing Havelka with a bucket of ice water.

"It's fantastic," Nichols said. "We have like six sophomores on this team. You see how excited they are."