During warmups Tuesday, the La Salle-Peru softball team booted a few balls in the infield, and many of its plays weren’t crisp.

Senior pitcher Taylor Vescogni said the Cavaliers were a bit nervous with a packed house at the L-P Sports Complex for their Class 3A La Salle-Peru Sectional semifinal.

“We had a discussion before the game, because I felt like in our warmups we were getting a little bit intimidated by all the people here just because we’ve never had this many people at one of our games,” Vescogni said. “But then we kind of flipped it to, all these people are here to support us, and it’s so awesome that all these people could come out to the game to support us.

“Having the fans cheering us on, I feel like it really helped.”

The Cavs gave the big home crowd plenty to cheer about.

Vescogni threw her second shutout of the postseason, Makenzie Chamberlain drove in two runs, and L-P beat East Peoria 2-0 to give the Cavs one more game on their home field Friday in the sectional championship against Dunlap.

“It’s amazing,” Vescogni said about winning a sectional game on their home field. “It’s everything we could hope for to play on our home field in sectionals, and now to be able to play the sectional championship at our home field is so exciting.”

Dunlap (28-8) advanced with a 2-1 win over Ottawa in Tuesday’s first semifinal. The Cavs (23-14) beat the Eagles 11-1 in six innings on May 8.

“We played them earlier in the year, so we’re kind of expecting how to pitch to them already because I faced them before,” Vescogni said.

Although L-P won the earlier matchup with Dunlap, Chamberlain isn’t taking anything for granted since the Eagles did not pitch Illinois recruit Sutton Centoni.

“Even though we beat them in the regular season, they didn’t pitch their pitcher who we’re going to see, so it’s going to be a totally different game,” Chamberlain said. “So we can’t go in there thinking, ‘Oh yeah, we can beat them.’ We need to get on our level and beat their level on Friday.”

Vescogni continued to pitch at a high level this postseason on Tuesday, as she allowed three hits while striking out 12 and walking one.

“I knew they were good hitters, and they had a couple slappers on their team who are really good,” said Vescogni, who has allowed one unearned run on seven hits with 35 strikeouts and three walks in three complete games this postseason. “My goal for the game was to keep the leadoff hitter off base, so working them inside, riseball and then mixing my changeup with that.”

While Vescogni was dominating, East Peoria pitcher Addison Duncheon was making things difficult for the Cavs as well. L-P did not have a baserunner the first time through the order before the Cavs got going in the fourth.

Lydia Steinbach drew a one-out walk before Kelsey Frederick and Anna Riva each singled to load the bases to bring up Chamberlain.

The junior catcher ripped a hard shot to the left side for an infield single to bring in Steinbach.

“It was a little nerve-racking, because recently I haven’t been hitting, it’s just been a bunch of popouts, lineouts,” Chamberlain said. “I was just like, ‘I need need to hit it hard somewhere,’ and that’s what I did.

“It was a big change of momentum.”

Chamberlain gave the Cavs an insurance run in the sixth when she ripped a double to the right-center field gap to score Riva.

“It gives a sense of relief,” Chamberlain said about getting an extra run.

The Cavs finished with six hits – two each from Chamberlain and Riva and one each from Frederick and Karmen Piano.

“She’s the real deal,” L-P coach Randy Huebbe said about Duncheon. “The first time through the lineup, we were OK. We were just feeling our way through, but I told them when we came up in the fourth inning, ‘OK, you’ve all seen her one time, make your adjustments,’ and they made the adjustments. We started hitting her hard.”

EP’s Annika Rosecrans led off the seventh with a double, but Vescogni retired the next three batters to end it with Chamberlain catching a pop-up in foul territory for the final out.

“It was a sense of relief (to catch the final out),” Chamberlain said. “Being able to come home and be like, ‘This is our place, not yours,’ is just great. It’s a phenomenal feeling.”

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Members of the L-P softball team (from left) Anna Riva, Dangy Greer, Mackenzie Chamberlain, Taylor Vescogni, Shayla Turczyn, and Kelsey Frederick gather around home plate to celebrate their 2-0 win over East Peoria during the Class 3A Sectional semifinal game on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at the L-P Athletic Complex in La Salle. (Scott Anderson)