Not only had Gabby Burnett and her Bishop McNamara softball teammates gone winless against All-City rivals Bradley-Bourbonnais since the senior four-year second baseman got to high school, but their annual meeting hadn’t been close.

In fact, the Fightin’ Irish entered Thursday’s home matchup with their arch nemesis without a run against the Boilers since they tallied a singular run in a mercy rule loss three years ago.

But that all changed on Thursday, when Burnett followed solo home runs from Joslynn Dole and Emma Thyfault with a three-run double for a five-run second inning that was more than enough support for Dole in the circle as the Fightin’ Irish scored a 5-2 win to snap a five-game losing streak to their crosstown rivals.

With both of the teams’ games with Kankakee being canceled this spring, Thursday’s winner-take-all result gave the Irish their first All-City softball crown since 2019.

“Going into it a lot of people were like, ‘You’re going to lose, you’re going to lose,’” Burnett said. “I think we just put in the work all year round, we came in with a good mindset and just worked as a team. I’m just so happy to win in my senior year.”

A matchup that had playoff-like intensity for the first time in a few years, both defenses turned heads-up first-inning double plays in what figured to be a pitchers’ duel between Dole and Bradley-Bourbonnais senior ace Lydia Hammond.

For all but half an inning, it was, as the only baserunner Hammond allowed after the second came on an error, and Dole fired through a lethal Boiler lineup with little resistance for most of the evening.

But for that half inning, the Irish (13-5) were unconsciously hot. Dole opened the frame off with a moonshot to center, and after Hammond induced a Sophia Piggush flyout, Thyfault sent an opposite field blast over the right field fence to put momentum firmly in a McNamara dugout that it never left.

“We’ve talked about this game since the beginning of the season,” Thyfault said. “When we got here there was definitely a lot riding on this game, and when I got in the box I just felt like this is it now. I hit that home run and I feel like it was just a realization moment for me personally, what softball means to me personally, and it’s an All-City game. There were so many people here, there were so many people who came to support, and you could definitely feel the love.”

Hammond quickly recovered to fan Camille Czako, but hit Reagan Kaner with a pitch before Vivian Dole and Maddy Weiland hit back-to-back singles to center, loading bases that Burnett cleared with an opposite field rope to right that was feet away from a grand slam.

After taking the circle in the second with no score, Joslynn Dole returned to the rubber with a five-run lead that allowed her more comfort. She pitched to contact consistently and allowed two earned runs on eight scattered hits, three walks and two strikeouts.

“I kept thinking in my head, especially in the first inning, that I can do this, I’ve worked for this, stuff like that,” the sophomore hurler said. “I think that (second inning) really helped me confirm it. Yes, we can do this. … Every single ball out there I knew Maddy had that or Vivian had that. Every ground ball I was like Sophia’s got that, Gabby’s got that. I really trusted my defense."

The Boilers (19-7) kept their composure throughout and mounted a late rally when Abbie Hofbauer, Liv Woolman and Bristol Schriefer all singled to load the bases for Hammond, whose RBI single got the Boilers on the board for the first time since Schriefer’s third-inning sacrifice fly.

But with cleanup hitter Leila Middlebrook up as the potential go-ahead run, Joslynn Dole got Middlebrook to fly out to Weiland in left to seal it.

“It was absolutely phenomenal,” first-year Irish coach Jenna Arseneau said. “This is a core memory I’ll have for the rest of my life. We talk about big games every practice – regional games, BBCHS, a game that we want with a big town rival. We wanted to be intense, so we brought the energy and I’m so proud of them for keeping it for seven innings."

The Irish, winners of six straight, will look to stay hot when they host St. Edward for a pair on Saturday. The Boilers, who have also been playing their best softball as late with mammoth SouthWest Suburban Conference wins over Lincoln-Way East and Homewood-Flossmoor earlier this week, are 2½ games back of Lincoln-Way West atop the SWSC standings with six conference games to play.

And as much as they would have loved to have kept their All-City streak alive, coach Haylee Austell knows that they have to, and very much can, quickly turn the page.

“As much as we want to win this ballgame and as much as it’s emotional to not be what we want, we write our goals at the beginning of the year and not a one of my 14 girls wrote that they wanted to win All-City,” Austell said. “I think we’re built for bigger and better, we work for bigger and better, so we know at the end of the day that we want to make sure that we’re peaking at the beginning and peaking at the end.”

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Bradley-Bourbonnais' Avery Moutrey, left, fields a throw at third base before tagging out a sliding Maddy Weiland of Bishop McNamara during a game at Bishop McNamara Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Mason Schweizer)