Bradley-Bourbonnais claims sectional crown with 6-1 win over Edwardsville

MONTICELLO − When Suttyn Hop’s two-out, fifth-inning home run clanged off the scoreboard in center field at Monticello High School on Friday, the Bradley-Bourbonnais softball team started to breathe a little easier.

The two-run shot put the Boilermakers up 5-1 over Edwardsville in the IHSA Class 4A Normal Community West Sectional championship. And with the way Lydia Hammond has been pitching this year, especially in the postseason, that lead felt insurmountable.

The Boilermakers added another run in the top of the seventh, not that Hammond needed it. She retired the final 10 Tiger batters she faced to finish off a two-hit, 12-strikeout performance that gave Bradley-Bourbonnais a 6-1 win and its second-ever sectional title, both of which have come in the last three seasons.

Despite this recent postseason success, with four regional titles also coming in the last four seasons, the Boilermakers felt like they were overlooked a bit coming into the postseason.

As the three-seed in their subsectional, and with some new faces emerging this season to carry on the program’s winning ways, Hammond said she and her teammates have shown they deserve to be where they are.

“I definitely feel like we’re seen as an underdog and we’re not always seen as the top team,” Hammond said. “Going into these games we know that we’re more than that, despite what other people on the outside see. I think that going into postseason, we really locked in and we are the team to beat.”

Hammond posted some eye-popping number throughout the regular season, but once the playoffs started, the junior seemed to find another gear.

In four postseason starts, including an 11-inning marathon in the regional championship, she has thrown all 32 postseason innings and surrendered just two runs, good for an 0.44 ERA. She has allowed 18 hits to go with 49 strikeouts.

“When she’s given a job and something to rise to, she will do it every single time,” Boilermaker head coach Haylee Austell said. “It’s not so much because she works hard, which she does. It’s not so much because she’s talented, which she is. It’s just because she refuses to lose... That mindset, paired with how hard she works, is why we’re here.”

Hop has also been key to the Boilermakers’ success as a senior leader, both behind the plate as a catcher and in the batter’s box.

“She is somebody who has a short memory and just goes out every day and is the same person,” Austell said. “She’s the same person at practice, the same person in the games. She’s just steady and reliable.”

The Boilermakers rallied for a pair of runs in the first, with Bella Pusateri scoring on a wild pitch and Leila Middlebrook driving in Hammond with an infield single. They scored again in the second when Alayna Sykes scored on a Bristol Schriefer groundout.

But the offense dried up a bit for the next couple of innings, while at the same time Edwardsville started showing signs of life against Hammond. Brooke Burris hit an RBI double in the third and the Tigers had runners on second and third in the fourth after a walk, error and wild pitch.

Hammond ended that threat with a strikeout, and then the dependable Hop delivered a pair a big insurance runs with her blast in the fifth.

“I felt a lot of relief, and I just felt that I had my teammates there by me,” Hop said. “I was excited knowing that, going forward, it would give us energy to get a few more, and it did.”

Schriefer capped the scoring in the seventh with a sacrifice fly that drove in Shannon Lee from third. Shriefer and Hop tied for the team lead with two RBIs apiece while Pusateri went 3 for 3 with two runs scored out of the leadoff spot.

Pusateri, who caught the game’s final out in shallow center, is the only senior to be part of all four regional titles. She said the team is ready for another clash with a tough Lockport team, but is also making sure to appreciate the extra time they have gotten to spend together.

“Just take it day by day, because you don’t get this that often” she said. “I graduated three weeks ago and I’m still playing ball for B-B. I’m excited for these girls and what’s coming next for them.”