Softball: Johnson, Mundelein dominate Warren, claim 4A sectional crown

Mundelein claimed its second 4A sectional championship in three years as Shae Johnson led the Mustangs with five scoreless innings pitched and four runs batted in during their 13-0 run rule victory over Warren on Friday in Northbrook.

“It means everything. These kids have put in the work this year,” said Mundelein coach Heather Ryan. “We have five seniors who have really turned the program around, and I'm just grateful that we can keep playing and keep advancing for them.”

Johnson is one of those seniors. After being held out during a sectional final loss last season due to injury, she is happy to be back with her team and moving onto a supersectional tilt Monday at 6:45 p.m. vs. the winner of Lane Tech vs Taft in Rosemont.

“Just grateful that I get to be in this position, and now just kind of just taking it all in,” said Johnson, who went 3-for-4 at the plate while throwing an 88 pitch complete game with 8 strikeouts in the circle.

“Whatever happens, happens,” added Johnson, looking ahead to Monday. “Just hoping for the best at this point and knowing all our hard work has paid off.”

It was the third time this season that these North Suburban rivals have faced off.

After dropping their first two meetings with the Blue Devils (22-7), Ryan felt her team had cracked the code at the plate and were prepared for the Warren pitching staff.

“When you play the same team in the conference, you get to know their pitching a little bit,” explained Ryan. “We were just kind of going off some of the trends that we saw when we watched our games back and just were kind of anticipating seeing some of their off speed — it really paid off.”

The familiarity certainly seemed to help in the first inning. Mustangs senior outfielder Kieley Tomas led the game off with a double to right on the game's first pitch.

After the next batter walked, Johnson stepped to the plate and doubled home a pair of runs to get her team on the board early.

“It was an 0-2 pitch that I hit,” said Johnson. “I was just trying to make contact and just trying to help myself out, help the team out, and get on the board early.”

Shea Eamon followed her up with an RBI single to make it 3-0 Mundelein and they never looked back.

Johnson and Eamon both made their way back to the plate in the second inning, combining for two more runs batted in on a pair of singles.

“In our pregame, we talked about scoring early and often,” said Ryan. “We pitch and play defensively better when we have the lead, and typically we haven't been scoring early on in the game.”

“It takes us a little while, so that was one of our goals to get on the board early and often, and the girls executed the plan perfectly,” explained the Mustangs coach.

With a 5-0 lead, Johnson was able to settle in and pepper the zone with strikes. She credited her off-speed pitch as the difference in today’s meeting with Warren.

“I tried to throw in some more changeups today to some of their bigger hitters, and I feel like I was a lot more successful today, just mixing speeds with them,” said Johnson.

After striking out two batters over the first two innings, she punched out three in the third along with a pair of walks, the only two she would surrender.

“We were having trouble laying off her high stuff,” said Warren coach Jenna Charbonneau. “She was coming up in the zone on us and we were having trouble laying off of it. Kudos to her, she's a great pitcher.”

Mundelein (21-5) added four more runs in the bottom half of the inning, as well as another four runs in the fourth to put themselves into run rule territory headed into the fifth.

With the loss, Warren ends a successful season with 22 wins, rebounding from 19 wins in 2025. It is the 10th 20-plus win season since Charbonneau took over as coach in 2015.

That being said, Charbonneau credits her seniors for their success this year.

“Our four seniors, those were kind of our pillars,” said Charbonneau. “They've really kind of held us down and been constants for us all 4 years, and especially this year.”

Camryn Guldberg will play at UW-Eau Claire next season. Mia Meno is headed to Carthage College.