Yorkville Fury's season comes to an end

The Yorkville Fury's 16U softball team's season came to an end on July 27, when the Naperville Diamonds defeated them for a second time in the double elimination Southwest Suburban Softball Tournament, 6-4, in Oswego.

The Fury, whose season started on June 1, finished the 16-team tournament with their best-ever showing of second place and capped the season with a record of 23-16.

"It was great. We are like a huge family - we do everything together," said head coach Casey Cantwell. "The majority of this team has been together since they were eight, nine years old. Aubrey (Fisher), Mackenzie (Nance) and Taylor (Neville) have been together since the beginning."

The 12-girl team, formerly known as the Yorkville Sparks, is mostly compiled of players from Yorkville. Just one, Sammi Stamper, is from Plano and goes to Plano High School. Nance, Fisher, Neville, Michelle Clayton, Haley Hilt, Amanda Farwell, Dakotah Kinsella, Aurora Reifsteck, Megan Corneils, Sam Blissit and Lauren Wood are from Yorkville. All of them except Fisher, who goes to Rosary, attend Yorkville High School.

Tragically in the off-season, which started in January, one of the Fury's players, Ally Bradford, died with her friend, Seth Egger, in a car accident in mid-March. Bradford was a three-sport athlete at Aurora Central Catholic.

"Losing (Bradford) definitely affected the girls," Cantwell said. "It put a big hole in the team, but they found a way to keep going."

Once the season started, the Fury had a nice run, especially in tournament play. They finished second at West Chicago's Swinging Cats Tournament, third at Elburn's Sweet 16 Tournament, fourth at the Wisconsin Dells Summer Classic and sixth at Wheaton's Red White and Blue Tournament.

In the first playoff loss against Naperville, the Fury lost, 13-8, on July 25. In the second game of the double elimination tournament, Yorkville went up 4-1 before the Diamonds rallied back and won.

In the first inning of the second game, Reifsteck hit an RBI single and Stamper recorded an RBI triple. In the third, Nance hit a bunt single and Wood sent her home with an RBI single. Neville also posted a RBI triple.

Both Wood and Reifsteck shared the pitching duties against the Diamonds.

"(The Diamonds) are an older team and we played well, but the turning point was after the fifth inning, when they started hitting our pitchers," Cantwell said. "Our pitchers did well but the defense had a few errors."

Cantwell was impressed with the way the Fury grew and matured from January to July.

"It was great to be able to watch how much they've improved and what they've accomplished," Cantwell said. "They have continued to amaze me."

The Fury will take the next few weeks off and will determine soon what they are doing in the fall. There is a possibility they will play in the fall, but nothing has been decided just yet.