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Softball
Beecher 10, Central 0: Beecher (23-1, 10-0 RVC) continued its decades-long dominance of the River Valley Conference, picking up a 10-0 win over second-place Central (12-10, 7-3) to clinch its 24th straight conference title. Taylor Norkus was dominant for the Bobcats, allowing just three singles over six innings while recording 14 strikeouts. Makenzie Johnson went 3 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs while Ava Olson was 3 for 4 with a double, three RBIs and a run. Ava Lorenzatti was 2 for 3 with a double and three runs.
Lia Prairie, Sydney Jemar and Alexa White each went 1 for 3 for the Comets with a single apiece. Jemar also had a stolen base.
Gardner-South Wilmington 7, Grant Park 3: Maddie Simms homered for Gardner-South Wilmington (13-8, 6-3 RVC) while also striking out 10 batters over seven innings to lead the Panthers to a conference sweep over Grant Park (9-8, 6-4 RVC). Simms was 1 for 4 with a solo home run and allowed just six hits, five of which were singles. Ella Mack went 2 for 4 with a triple, two RBIs and a run while Kayla Scheuber was 1 for 4 with a triple, an RBI and a run.
Grant Park’s Cheyenne Hayes allowed just five hits in her six innings of work while recording 11 strikeouts. She also went 2 for 3 with a triple and an RBI. Kaylie Mehreg was 1 for 2 with an RBI and Lola Malkowski was 1 for 3 with an RBI.
Wilmington 16, Crete-Monee 0: With eight runs apiece in both the first and second innings, the Wildcats picked up a blowout nonconference win on the road to improve to 16-5 overall. Lexi Strohm pitched all four innings of the win, allowing just one hit and striking out six batters. Keeley Walsh was 3 for 4 with an RBI and three runs and Addison Billingsley was 2 for 2 with an RBI and a run. Molly Southall was 1 for 1 with two walks, an RBI and two runs while Taryn Gilbert was 1 for 2 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs.
El Paso-Gridley 21, Herscher 20: The top four players in the lineup were on fire for Herscher (13-9) as the Tigers dropped a barnburner at home. RyLyn Adams, Addy Whitaker, Keira Ahramovich and Anistin Hackley were a combined 15 for 21 with 10 RBIs and 13 runs. Hackley was 5 for 5 with a home run, five RBIs and two runs while Ahramovich was 4 for 5 with a double, a walk, two RBIs and three runs. Adams and Whitaker had three hits and four runs apiece, with Whitaker driving in three runs and Adams stealing three bases.
Streator 8, Reed-Custer 5: The Comets took a home loss in Illinois Central Eight Conference play to fall to 9-11 overall and 1-9 in conference play. Caysie Esparza was 2 for 2 with two walks, an RBI and a run while Amber Syc was 2 for 4 with an RBI, a run and three stolen bases. Kamryn Wilkey was 2 for 4 with a run while Kirstin Klein was 1 for 4 with a double, an RBI and a run.
Morris 17, Manteno 2: The Panthers (14-4) stumbled against Morris on the road to have their five-game winning streak come to an end. They had just two hits in the game, with Sophie Peterson and Jazmine Manau each going 1 for 2 with a double. Manau had two RBIs while Peterson and Aubrie Goudreau each scored a run.
Baseball
Beecher 5, Central 4: The Bobcats (9-10, 5-3 RVC) managed to avoid a River Valley Conference sweep, bouncing back from Tuesday’s loss to Central (8-9, 6-2 RVC) and snapping the Comets’ six-game RVC winning streak. Chasten Clegg was 3 for 4 with a double and a run for the Bobcats while Nicholas Fox was 3 for 4 with an RBI. Santino Imhof was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run. Clegg also earned the win in relief of Imhof, throwing three scoreless innings while allowing four hits and recording four strikeouts.
For Central, Reece Boudreau was 2 for 3 with a run. Owen Palmateer was 1 for 3 with a walk and a run while Derek Meier was 1 for 3 with a walk, an RBI and a run.
Grant Park 5, Gardner-South Wilmington 4: Joey McGinley, Brayden Heldt and Connor Manahan had two hits apiece as the Dragons (6-9, 4-4 RVC) took down the Panthers (6-10, 3-3 RVC) in Gardner to earn a conference split. McGinley was 2 for 4 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run, Heldt was 2 for 4 with a walk and an RBI and Manahan was 2 for 3 with a walk and an RBI.
The Panthers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh before coming up short. Cole Hampson was 1 for 3 with a walk and an RBI while Ryan Milette was 1 for 2 with a walk and two runs.
Girls soccer
Herscher 6, Manteno 0: Gianni Jaime’s hat trick led the Tigers (13-3-2, 6-0 ICE) to another Illinois Central Eight Conference win on the road. Sophie Venckauskas added two goals while Brooke King had one.
Ave Derrico had six saves for Manteno (5-11-3, 1-5 ICE).
Coal City 2, Reed-Custer 1: The Coalers (11-4-1, 4-2 ICE) got a pair of goals from Kylee Kennell to pick up a conference win at home over the Comets (7-5, 3-3 ICE). Claire Mohler had an assist for Coal City.
No individual stats were immediately available for Reed-Custer.
Peotone 3, Wilmington 3: The Blue Devils (7-5-1, 3-3 ICE) won a penalty shootout 4-2 at home over Wilmington (4-8, 1-4 ICE). The win was Peotone’s fifth in a row. No individual stats were immediately available for the Blue Devils.
Wilmington’s Alaina Clark had three goals while Addison Van Duyne and Audrey Powlick each had a goal and an assist.