Kylee Cunningham throws no-hitter, homers in Kankakee win

KANKAKEE − The Kankakee softball team continued the dominance of most of its Southland Athletic Conference opponents with a 16-0 win over Thornridge at home on Wednesday.

The Kays completed the season sweep of the Falcons with a third straight three-inning win. They outscored Thornridge 46-1 in those three games, the first two coming in a doubleheader Monday, to improve to 13-1 in conference play and 13-8 overall.

Senior Kylee Cunningham threw a no-hitter in the win, allowing only one runner on a hit by pitch in the first inning and finishing the game with seven strikeouts. She also had RBI triple and a two-run home run, her first long ball of the season, in her two at bats in the Kays 14-run first inning. She finished the game 2 for 3.

Kylie Glogowski was 2 for 3 with two triples, two RBIs and three runs while Lillian Landis and Kaleah Jackson each went 2 for 2 with an RBI apiece. Landis scored three runs and Jackson scored two.

After hitting three home runs last season, Cunningham said that a goal for her senior season was add to that total.

“One of the ones I had last year was against the same team, so it feels good to get at least one more for my senior year,” she said.

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Kankakee's Calleigh Moody keeps her eye on the ball for a hit during the Kays' 16-0 victory over Thornridge on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Another of Cunningham’s goals for her final season was for the team to win the conference title after finishing second to Bloom last season. A dozen of Kankakee’s 13 conference wins have come by double figures, with a 10-9 win over Bloom at home on April 29 being the only win to buck that trend. The Kays lost to Bloom 2-1 in walkoff fashion the day before that win.

These two teams will meet one more time on Friday in Kankakee. The Blazing Trojans have also been blowing out all of their SAC foes this season except for the Kays. Bloom will head into Friday’s matchup with a 9-1 conference record, and although both teams will have several conference games left after Friday, the game will quite likely decide the conference.

The Kays had just two hits off Bloom’s Alexandria Cowan in their 2-1 loss, but bounced back the next day with 11 hits off her in their 10-9 win. Cunningham said it will be key to build off that success.

“We’ve been hitting really well lately too, so we just need to keep that up,” she said. “They pitch the same pitcher, so just getting ready to see her going into practice tomorrow ready to work, and not take it lightly.”

Kankakee’s four conference games between their contests with Bloom have not been very competitive. While the positive results from these blowout wins will not necessarily carry over into what is sure to be a much more competitive game on Friday, head coach LaDesha Nelson said it was important to take care of things in those games to feel good heading forward.

“The goal for this entire week was to keep momentum flowing,” she said. “Keep it going up, keep good energy and keep working on the little things we’ve been wanting to work on defensively and at the plate.”

Wednesday’s game was also a special one for the Kankakee softball program, even before the players took the field.

In a pregame ceremony, the field was renamed in honor of Deb Johnston, who died last November at 71 after a nearly five-decade career as a teacher, coach and school board member. She had a major impact on every girls sports program at Kankakee in her time with the district.

After retiring from coaching in 2017, Johnston briefly returned to coach the junior high softball team on a volunteer basis in 2022, which is where Nelson first met her.

“She helped me transition into the program,” Nelson said. “I’ve seen all the love and support she had going into it, from softball players to basketball players and just from the area. It definitely meant a lot after the speeches and seeing everybody, seeing people come out that we haven’t seen in a while.”