After slow start, Ottawa rolls past Crete-Monee in 3A regional semifinal

MORRIS – Coaches are always saying how they want their teams to be playing their best leading up to the postseason.

The Ottawa softball team came into Tuesday’s Class 3A Morris Regional semifinal against Crete-Monee on a four-game winning streak. However, the last of those victories came eight days earlier.

After the subsectional seventh-seeded Warriors scored three runs in the top of the first, the second-seeded Pirates answered with four in their half of the inning, then exploded for 10 runs in the fourth in a 14-3 victory in five innings.

“We’d been off game-wise for over a week, and it showed. We were lackadaisical to start the game,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “You hate to go that long heading into the postseason without playing games, but with the weather canceling a couple of games early last week and not being able to find any replacement games late last week, it is what it is.”

Ottawa (19-10), which has won regional titles the past two seasons, advances to Friday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game against the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between Morris and Plano.

Crete-Monee, which had a five-game winning streak snapped, ended the season 12-15.

“I thought we had some good at-bats in the first inning to get those runs back right away,” said Ottawa sophomore catcher Bobbi Snook, who had three hits in the game, including a two-run double in the first to get the Pirates on the board. “Then I think the second and third at-bats you could see all of us collectively start to take better swings.”

Following Snook’s double, Reece Purcell drew a walk, and after a wild pitch Joslyn Rose laced a two-run single just inside the right field line.

“The pitch speed was a little slower than we normally see, and when that happens it can be hard to adjust right away, but I thought we did a pretty good job with that,” Snook said. “We also hadn’t faced live pitching in a week or so, and while you can do a lot of other things to try and prepare and be ready, the live pitching keeps you consistent.”

In the game-changing bottom of the fourth, consecutive singles by Piper Lewis and Snook were followed by an RBI hit from Aubrey Sullivan to make it 6-4.

Purcell’s RBI single followed before a walk to Rose and single by Annamaria Corsolini loaded the bases.

A Crete-Monee error and wild pitched scored three, and later a line drive to center off the bat of Lewis scored two more.

Ottawa’s final two runs scored on wild pitches.

Winning pitcher Addie Russell, after allowing three earned runs in the first inning on two hits and three walks, retired 11 of the final 13 batters she faced and finished with 10 strikeouts, including seven on called-third strikes.

“My mechanics were really off today,” Russell said. “I just kept sliding off instead of pushing off the rubber. It was hard for me to stick my pitches today. I was able to kind of find my way after the first inning.”

Coach Lewis and Snook said they loved how their ace battled on a day where things weren’t clicking like usual.

“Addie wasn’t quite as sharp as she’s been all season, but some of that is on me for having her take time off so she’d be healthy and rested,” coach Lewis said. “Softball pitchers are routine-oriented, and not having games to throw in kind of had her out of rhythm a little today. That said, she really battled for us without having her best stuff.

“Addie had a tough first inning, but she really bored down, fought through it and gave it everything she had after that,” Snook said. “She had such a great season for us, so I don’t think anyone can have fault in one tough inning.”