Izzy Gibson powers Princeton past Sandwich into regional finals

PRINCETON - Izzy Gibson had a good feeling when she got to the ball diamond Friday.

She just didn’t know how good.

Princeton’s junior slugger cracked two opposite-field homers, a two-run blast in the second and a three-run shot in the fifth, to power the Tigresses to a 9-6 Class 2A regional semifinal win over Sandwich at Little Siberia Field.

“Before the game I had a feeling I might hit one. I felt really good with myself,” Gibson said. “When we were taking reps I felt really good how my swing was looking. I had a pretty good feeling.”

The Tigresses (15-11) will take that good feeling to face top-seeded Morrison (20-4) in Saturday’s regionals finals at 11 a.m. The Fillies (20-4) blitzed Somonauk 13-0 on Thursday.

“I’m so stoked. I’m excited. We’re going to do great things tomorrow if we show up and play like we did today,” Princeton senior Samantha Woolley said.

“It’s amazing, because we have such a great team this year,” Gibson said. “We have a lot of talent on this team so I’m really happy we’re making it through, because I feel like we’re deserving to win the regional championship.”

The game had a strange ending. Sandwich’s Brooklyn Marks blasted what appeared to be a three-run homer with no outs in the top seventh to draw the Indians within 9-7.

The base umpire, however, ruled that there was coach’s interference when Sandwich’s Matilda McGuirre hugged Marks as she ran around third base on the way home. Marks was called out and a run taken away from the Indians.

Princeton second baseman Kelsea Klingenberg turned a double play two batters later to end the game.

“He said it was too long of celebration that held her up before moving on to home,” McGuire said. “We’ve done that all season long. That’s the first time it’s been a problem. In our heads, we ended the season with a 9-7 score and Brooklyn ended her senior season with a home run and nobody’s going to tell us any different.”

Princeton coach Jhavon Hayes, who called a timeout and was on her way to the field, didn’t know what was going on at first.

“I was just focused on trying to call a time out to calm the defense down so we could reset,” Hayes said. “They had a player that came up clutch for them, so I definitely understood the opposing coaches emotions. It didn’t affect the outcome of the game, but it’s a lesson learned for everyone.”

Sandwich powered up early, scoring four runs in the top of the first on four hits, including doubles by Aubrey Cyr, Hannah Decker (two RBIs) and Kendall Petre (RBI).

“It was a great start,” McGuirre said. “We knew were going to face a hard-hitting team that would string hits together and we were just hoping to match.”

Courtesy runner Payton Harden got one run back in the second for Princeton when she hustled home from third, beating the first baseman’s throw to the plate on a ground out in a cloud of dust with a head first slide.

Gibson took a big bite out of Sandwich’s 4-run lead by depositing her first home run over the right field fence just as her mom, Joann, was walking into the park to drive home two runs to make it 4-3.

An inning later, Gibson was dialing long distance again.

Keely Lawson led off the third with a deep double and Caroline Keutzer followed with a bloop hit to center and Avah Oertel walked to load the bases.

Kiyrra Morris tied the game at 4-4 on a RBI groundout to short, scoring Lawson. Sam Woolley singled home Keutzer and Addi Perry added a RBI single of her own to make it 6-4.

Up stepped Gibson again, who sent another blast to nearly the same spot as before over the right-field fence to extend the Tigresses lead to 9-4.

“Oh, my gosh. She’s on fire,” Woolley said. “It’s so fun when everybody is on, especially with her. She didn’t get to play the first few games (due to injury) and her coming back and just pounding them, I’m so proud of her.”

McGuirre was proud of her team to go down fighting. Win or lose, they finished their best season at 13-11.

“We’ve done that all season long, not giving up, even in the seventh inning. The fact they’re able to fight to the last inning is a testament to their character,” she said.

“This is our first season above .500 record. We’ve had great senior leadership this year. We’ve also had such a large team this year and able to utilize a lot of girls. Our three seniors were just fantastic all season to make that happen.”