Softball: Princeton’s bomb squad blast Kewanee

PRINCETON - Libby Boyles’ thoughts were far away from the softball field Tuesday, but for a few minutes she locked into the task at hand.

Boyles blasted a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the Princeton Tigresses out in front with a 3-1 lead over Kewanee at Little Siberia Field.

Teammates Mckenzie Hecht and Hannah Muehlschlegel followed with home runs in the next two innings to propel the Tigresses to a 9-2 win over the Boiler Girls in a key Three Rivers East showdown.

Boyles nearly didn’t attend school Tuesday, her thoughts with her boyfriend, Isaac, who was injured in an auto accident in Peoria. A day spent with school counselors helped get her through the day and onto the softball field at day’s end.

“It was a rough day, but I’m glad to be here for my team,” Boyles said. “One of the guidance counselors at school, Coach Abbie (Cochran), she’s my poms coach, got me through the day. She definitely made me look forward to softball a lot and got my mind off things.”

After the game, Boyles left to visit Isaac in the Peoria Hospital and take him the home run ball she hit.

The Tigresses improved to 7-2 overall and 4-0 atop the TRAC East with their second win over the Boiler Girls (8-3, 1-2) in a week. Kewanee was ranked No. 11 in the latest Class 2A rankings, PHS 27th.

Boyles’ blast gave the Tigresses their first lead of the game after the Boiler Girls scored in the top of the inning on a double by pitcher Makaela Salisbury and RBI single by catcher Lainey Kelly.

Hecht hit a solo shot deep to left field to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth.

An inning later, just as Hecht’s mom, Eileen, told fellow softball mom, Dawn Muehlschlegel, she thought it was time for her daughter to hit a home run, Hannah Muehlschelgel added a three-run blast to make it 9-2 as the moms went crazy.

PHS coach Joe Bates said the Tigresses’ big bats were a welcome sight.

“I told the girls a week ago, I had the sense the hitting was coming around and they believed it, too,” he said. “In practice, we’ve just been killing it. Once we get started, we roll pretty well. We rolled really well today.”

Bates said Boyles’ homer really helped break the game open.

“When it was really, really tight, those three runs were the big ones that got us up in front and then we didn’t look back from there,” he said.

Muehlschlegel and Hecht each had two hits to lead the Tigresses. Freshmen leadoff hitter Kelsea Klingenberg had a RBI hit in the sixth.

PHS senior ace Katie Bates set the Boiler Girls down in order in the seventh to end the game. Bates scattered four hits and fanned 10.

• Tiger tales: PHS will return to action Thursday at Mendota.