Glenbard South headed to state
To coin a popular phrase of late, the Glenbard South softball team is in it to win it.
Senior Jess Wilkes allowed just 3 hits and her defense made one harmless error Monday as the Raiders defeated Elmwood Park 3-0 in the Class 3A Elgin supersectional at Judson University to advance to the state finals in East Peoria for the third time in four years.
“I’ve been waiting for this since the moment I stepped on a softball field,” said Wilkes, who was a sophomore when Glenbard South last went to state, a fourth-place finish in 2009. “Not many people can say they were a state champion and I want it. We want it. We can be state champs.”
The Raiders (28-5) will begin pursuit of the big trophy at 9:30 a.m. on Friday against LaSalle-Peru, which defeated Oak Forest 1-0 in the Normal supersectional at ISU Monday. The noon semifinal will pit Marengo against Bethalto Civic Memorial with the winners meeting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday for the Class 3A state championship.
“This just feels great,” said Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda, drenched from the traditional postgame water cooler drenching, a welcome drenching on a 92-degree afternoon. “This is just awesome. This group has worked so hard and I’m just really proud of Jess for the way she worked through this heat.”
The Raiders were able to scratch out a run in the bottom of the first inning and as Wilkes worked out of several jams, it looked like that run might hold up until Glenbard South scored two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.
With one out in the home half of the first, Hannah Davey drew a walk from Elmwood Park’s Katelyn Jakobson and went to third when Jenny Wittenberg reached out and slapped a single to right field. Fonda called for a fake steal and the move paid off as Elmwood Park’s catcher made a delayed throw to second that allowed Davey to scoot home from third.
“With a team like (Elmwood Park) you have to start out with small ball and we’re a small ball team,” Davey said.
“That was just Raider softball,” Fonda offered.
From there it was all about Wilkes and the Raider defense. Elmwood Park (24-16), which lost to Glenbard South for the third time this season, put at least one runner in scoring position in every inning from the second through the sixth and every time Wilkes and the Raiders were up to the challenge. The best play of the day may have come in the fourth when the Tigers had runners at second and third and Glenbard South second baseman Brianna Meath just barely got Danielle Kerschackle at first on a slow roller to end the inning.
“If we’re going to play defense like that and not give up any runs nobody’s going to beat us,” Fonda said.
The Raiders finally gave Wilkes some breathing room in the sixth when Meath led off with a walk that was followed by consecutive singles from Davey, Wittenberg and Danielle Chitkowski. Both runs came home on Wittenberg’s single as an Elmwood Park throwing error allowed Davey to score to make it 3-0.
With the cushion, Wilkes breezed through the seventh 1-2-3 and the Raiders were headed to East Peoria.
“She gets stronger with runners in scoring position,” Fonda said of Wilkes, an Eastern Michigan recruit. “That’s a trait of hers that’s going to take her a long way.
“A lot of things have to go your way to get (to state). We’ll try to ride this streak into this weekend and I know these kids want it.”
Jakobson allowed just 5 hits in suffering the loss.
“We just pressed a little too hard today and it didn’t fall for us,” said Elmwood Park coach Erika Hanrahan. “The first inning run hurt because if it was 0-0 we might have been a little looser when we had our opportunities.”