Softball: Neuqua Valley can’t solve Oswego pitcher Anthony in regional final loss

Jaelynn Anthony seems just fine with the pressure of postseason softball.

The Oswego junior and Purdue recruit was instrumental in her team’s historic playoff run last year. Anthony threw back-to-back sectional shutouts on Oswego’s way to third place in Class 4A.

She’s picking up right where she left off.

Anthony on Friday tossed her second consecutive shutout to start the postseason. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and struck out 11, leading Oswego past Neuqua Valley 6-0 in the Class 4A Oswego East regional final.

“I really don’t have a problem with pressure. I’m OK with pressure. I don’t care,” Anthony said. “It makes me want to do better. It kind of gives me adrenaline to want to win. I want to be challenged.”

Anthony ended up allowing two hits and walked a batter as Oswego (33-2) advanced to face Yorkville in a sectional semifinal on Tuesday at Oswego. The Panthers won both regular-season meetings with the Foxes.

Anthony’s dominant outing Friday came on the heels of a 17-strikeout shutout of Metea Valley in Oswego’s playoff opener.

Oswego senior catcher and Iowa commit Kiyah Chavez, who had 2 hits and 3 RBI, sees a player in Anthony embracing the moment.

“She is just having fun,” Chavez said. “At this point it’s win or go home. How close me and Jaelynn are, the last thing me and Jaelynn want is for our season to be over. We’re doing everything we can to keep this going.”

Anthony fielded four comebackers over the first three innings, one a double play she started. And she seemed to get stronger as the game progressed.

Anthony struck out six consecutive batters from the third through fifth innings.

“I just needed to speed up my body,” Anthony said. “I was going through the motions early.”

A locked in Anthony is a scary sight for Oswego opponents, which Chavez can attest to. Neuqua (18-15), which scored seven runs its previous game, didn’t get its first hit until Nalia Clifford’s one-out single in the sixth.

“Game like today, she’s just having fun, she wants to win and she’s determined,” Chavez said. “When Jaelynn is focused and locked in like this it’s mission impossible for other teams to score runs.”

“She had a little more velocity, which threw us off a little bit,” Neuqua coach Danielle Asquini said. “And then she threw the changeup a little more which caught us off guard even more. And the movement on the pitches, too.”

Asquini’s own ace, Creighton commit Ava Drehs, limited an Oswego offense with 137 extra-base hits this season to seven hits, all singles.

But her defense didn’t help her.

Oswego scored three runs in the third for a 3-0 lead with just one ball leaving the infield. Chavez drove in the first run on a sacrifice fly, and two more runs scored on a two-out throwing error on what looked to be an inning-ending grounder.

“We knew going in to today that facing a great pitcher that we’d need our small ball and clutch hits, and one through 10 we did a great job executing small ball and putting balls in play,” Oswego co-coach Annie Scaramuzzi said.

Two more of Neuqua’s five errors allowed an unearned run to score in the fifth.

“There were a lot of unearned runs from our defensive mistakes and just not making the smarter plays that ended up costing us,” Asquini said. “It just wasn’t in our favor today.”

Chavez, who passed 60 RBI on the season, added run-scoring singles in the fourth and sixth.

“Ava is incredibly talented, one of my travel teammates — I catch for her,” Chavez said. “The last thing I want to do is beat one of my teammates, but it’s kill or be killed. I feel bad, I think her defense let her down.”