Seneca pitcher Hayden Pfeifer was locked in from start to finish in Monday’s Class 2A East Peoria Supersectional at EastSide Centre against Brimfield.

The junior right-hander scattered four hits, walked one and struck out 11 in the Fighting Irish’s 3-0 victory over the Indians.

“I have so many different emotions going on in my head right now,” Pfeifer said. “This doesn’t even seem real. At the beginning of the season, we talked about how this was our goal, make it to state, but back then it seemed so far away.”

Seneca (38-2) will take on IC Catholic (30-5) in the state semifinals at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria. IC Catholic defeated Stillman Valley 1-0 in eight innings in the Benedictine University Supersectional.

Brimfield ended the season at 29-6.

Pfeifer threw 77 of her 100 pitches for strikes and recorded an eye-popping 24 swings and misses.

“I was comfortable and confident throwing any one of my pitches in any situation today,” Pfeifer said. “Everything was working really well. I did a lot of stalking the past few days, checking out their box scores on GameChanger, looking for any videos on social media about their hitters, just anything and everything I could find to hopefully give me an edge.”

“Wow, 24 swings and misses, that’s a lot, and throw in this was a supersectional, man, that’s really impressive,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said.

Seneca plated what proved to be the only run it needed in the second off Brimfield senior Sawyer Drury. Catcher Lexie Buis reached on a one-out infield error before courtesy runner Brynlee Hunt stole second and moved to third on a throwing error. Freshman Ameliah Weber then lined a full count RBI base hit to center.

“Every time I step in the batter’s box I just think to myself, ‘My team is tough, I am too, and age is just a number,’” said Weber, who later doubled and singled to finish 3 for 3. “My first at-bat, too be honest I can’t even remember anything other than there were two outs, a runner was on third and I had a good at-bat that ended up with a hit.

“The seniors on this team are all amazing. They’ve talked about the last few years just falling short and how bad they wanted this. The seniors believed that this is our year, and when they believe, why wouldn’t I?”

In the Irish fourth, Pfiefer led off with a single and Camryn Stecken sacrificed courtesy runner Taylor Schaefer to second. After a strikeout, senior Tessa Krull hit an 0-2 soft liner just over third to bring home a hustling Schaefer.

“It wasn’t the hardest ball I’ve ever hit, it was a bloop, but it worked,” Krull said with a grin. “With two strikes I just had to shorten up my swing. It worked because the pitch was a little inside and I don’t think I would have ever made contact if I hadn’t cut down my swing.”

Seneca added the game’s final tally in the fifth as Marlie Lissy reached on an error to start the frame. Hunt, now a pinch runner, moved to second on a sac bunt by Aurora Weber. Then on a groundout to first, a throw to try and catch Hunt off the bag at third sailed high to allow Hunt to score.

Brimfield’s best scoring opportunities came in bottom of the second with a one-out double before Pfeifer fanned the next two batters and in the sixth when the Indians put runners on first and second with one out before the Seneca hurler recorded a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.

“We came here down here three years ago and scouted this facility out,” Holman said. “This is the exact same turf we have at home. I told the girls, when we get here it’s going to feel like a home game with nearly the entire town cheering them on.

“[Drury] is an outstanding pitcher, so we talked about how anytime we got a runner on we were going to move them over. We want to play aggressive and I thought we did a great job of that today.

“It’s been a lot of years chasing this goal and I’m just so happy for our players that they’ve earned this opportunity.”