Makayla Van Dinther tosses shutout to help St. Charles East over South Elgin for sectional title

PALATINE — No matter what the situation was, St. Charles East pitcher Makayla Van Dinther had full trust in her defense behind her.

Whether there was no outs and nobody on, or when South Elgin loaded the bases with two outs in both the third or fourth innings, the junior knew she could put the trust in her team to help her out.

“In those stressful situations, me and my catcher talked and located my spots,” Van Dinther said. “And I just knew I had to trust my defense. We played good all-around, and they helped me out a lot.”

Van Dinther paved the way for a sectional title for the Saints, tossing a six-hit shutout to help them to a 5-0 victory for their first sectional title since 2019.

“She just never wavered all day long,” Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. “It was a hitter’s zone, but she kept peppering it and hitting her spots. And when we got into jams, she got us out of it.”

The Saints (23-15) will face Barrington in a Class 4A supersectional at Barrington at 6 p.m. Monday. The Fillies defeated Huntley 2-0 in their sectional final. The two teams last faced off in 2023, with the Saints losing 18-6.

“These girls have just come out and put everything into this run,” Gutesha said. “South Elgin was a good team, but we moved the ball a lot and put the ball in play, and when you do that, good things happen.

“We needed to be playing our best and we’re doing it right now. This is a group that I knew was going to be tough, even with our record. I knew that come postseason, we were going to be tough.”

Junior Lexi Majkszak got the scoring started early for the Saints after running out an infield single. After she just beat the throw to the bag, junior Hayden Sujack broke for the plate, scoring on an errant throw. Senior Holly Smith would bring her home later in the inning to make it 2-0 before the Storm got a chance at the plate.

“I definitely wanted to pick up my teammate (senior) Addison Wolf after she struck out and wanted to get the run in by making contact in any way possible,” Majkszak said. “It felt so surreal to get our team on the board and get everyone up.”

Majkszak would continue the scoring in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded and just one out, she hit a grounder to third base, which was hit soft enough for sophomore Morgan Beers to slide in safely at home.

Beers would add even more insurance in the seventh inning when the sophomore slapped her fourth hit of the day into right field to score Smith from second.

“I just knew we needed an insurance run to really secure the win with a good inning,” Beers said. “I’ve been getting some pretty weak hits lately, so to get it into the outfield and get the insurance run got the confidence back.”

One batter later, senior Eden Corcoran drove her home for the fifth run.

“When it was 3-0, it felt good. But then it was 4-0, and then it was 5-0,” Gutesha said. “As soon as we got that fifth run, granted we still had to play the bottom of the seventh, but we knew we could finish it.”

Meanwhile, the loss puts an end to a record-breaking season for the Storm (29-5), who were just a win away from their first sectional title.