Anchored by the likes of four-year starter and reigning Daily Journal Player of the Year Lydia Hammond in the circle and three-year starting junior shortstop Shannon Lee, the Bradley-Bourbonnais softball team is starting the 2026 season with enough experience to give the Boilermakers the No. 9 ranking in the Illinois Softball Coaches Association preseason poll.

But as the Boilermakers look to break through with their first-ever Class 4A state appearance this spring, coach Haylee Austell knows as this year’s team forges its own unique identity and graduated holes are filled, they need to be as tested as they can as early as they can.

That’s why there were excited to face a powerhouse Marist program that’s finished no worse than second in Class 4A in four of the past five seasons, winning sectionals in all five.

The Boilers struck first when Lee scored on a two-out passed ball in the bottom of the first, but a six-run fourth and five-run sixth allowed the RedHawks a 13-6 victory in a matchup that had a clear theme of desired discomfort for Austell and her Boilers.

“We’re not going to go out here to play schools that are just out here learning and stuff, we want to play the best of the best,” Austell said. “We want to put ourselves in the best-case scenario early to grow as much as we can and to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations.

“Teams that are like us or maybe a little less than us won’t make us uncomfortable. We want to play the teams that will make us uncomfortable so that way when it comes to May, we’re used to that uncomfortability and don’t shy away from that.”

The RedHawks got comfortable themselves in a six-run fourth that started with a solo home run from Soleil Tate before Ellie Holmstrom put an exclamation point on the frame with a two-out grand slam.

A Layla Peters single to right was followed by a Mary Fortner bunt single that saw nobody cover first base, and after back-to-back fielder’s choices, Jacklyn Pigatto bunted into another one that scored a run when a quick mental lapse saw the Boilers attempt to force Fortner out at home rather than tag her. Madison Rogers was hit by a pitch before Holmstron’s dinger.

In addition to allowing her team to see what it means to execute with confidence in all phases, Austell said that half frame also showed the Boilers where the margins are found at the elite level the RedHawks play at.

“A lot of the girls on this team are the most athletic on their travel team, the strongest in the weight room and all these things,” Austell said. “They don’t understand that we’re now playing at the level where everybody is the strongest kid in the weight room, quickest kid or whatever it may be. At this level, the thing that separates the best players are 100% what’s between the ears.

“Today was a really great way for us to be able to start to learn that. We can say it until we’re blue in the face, but today Marist showed us what that looks like. It didn’t have to come from me sitting on a bucket in practice.”

Hammond allowed eight earned runs on nine hits and eight strikeouts over five innings. Abu Hofbauer allowed five runs (four earned) in the sixth, surrendering four hits and a walk while fanning one over the final two innings.

The Boilers plated a pair on an Evie McIntyre single and Lee groundout in the fifth, followed by a three-run sixth on a Hofbauer triple, Elise Munsterman double and a double steal that saw Kylie Stanek take second before Munsterman slid home.

They started to threaten again when they opened the seventh with a Lee single and Bristol Schriefer walk, but after a Hammond pop out to third, Leila Middlebrook hit a dart right to Holmstron at second, who then caught Schriefer out at first for a game-ending double play.