Cary-Grove set to meet DeKalb
To this point of the postseason, Cary-Grove’s softball team has been in relatively familiar territory.
The Trojans beat Fox Valley Conference Valley Division opponent McHenry to open the state tournament, then they defeated Grant — a team they had already played in nonconference play — to win the regional. They knocked off Jacobs for the fourth time this season on Thursday to advance to the sectional finals.
Now comes a different challenge for top-ranked Cary-Grove, which will take a 30-1 record into today’s Class 4A Rockford Guilford sectional championship game against 30-4 DeKalb in what promises to be a splendid pitchers’ duel.
Game time is 3 p.m., moved from the original 11 a.m. start to accommodate DeKalb’s graduation ceremonies.
“We saw them Wednesday and they did a tremendous job against Hononegah,” said Cary-Grove coach Tammy Olson of the Barbs, who advanced to today’s game with a 4-0 win over Hononegah in the sectional semifinals.
“They have good hitters and their pitcher is very sound. We just have to play our game.”
DeKalb’s pitcher is freshman phenom Katie Kowalski, who carries a 28-2 record into today’s game and has shown all year to be a pitcher beyond her years, just like Cary-Grove sophomore Lindsay Efflandt.
Kowalski 4-hit Hononegah and had 10 strikeouts. She has made a habit in the postseason of not losing her composure when other teams threaten to score, another of Efflandt’s strong traits.
Efflandt comes in with a 27-1 record and 241 strikeouts in 189 innings and a 0.84 ERA so this game, on paper at least, would appear to come down to defense and execution, as the Trojans seek back-to-back trips to the Elite Eight.
Cary-Grove’s offense clicks best when its speedy 1-2 hitters, Eleni Polites and Alexis Haley, get on base and make things happen. DeKalb, which has never won a sectional title, has relied a little more on the big hit in the postseason with boomers like Mackenzie Johnson, Kelli Gerace and Vicki Von Bergen leading the way.
Olson says that while DeKalb is an unknown to her team as compared to the other clubs they’ve faced in the postseason, it’s still a matter of just playing the game the way the Trojans know how.
“We’ve had to search for a little more information on them having only seen them once,” she said.
“Does it change our preparation on the field? Probably not. We just have to play our game against them and I’m sure they’ll play their game against us.”
Today’s winner will advance to the NIU supersectional on Monday to play either Elk Grove or St. Charles North. Those two meet at 11 a.m. today for the Schaumburg sectional title.