It was a scary situation in the circle for Avery Miller.

With runners on second and third with no outs in the fifth inning, the Glenbard North senior faced down the heart of the St. Charles North lineup with the goal of preserving a one-run lead.

But even with the stress, the Illinois-Springfield commit knew that as long as she took things one pitch at a time and trusted her defense, she could keep the lead as it was.

“Our defense has been so strong this past week that I knew I could just trust my pitches,” Miller said. “I just took it as it came and just mixed up my pitches a lot to keep them on their toes.

Miller would escape the inning unscathed with a strikeout and two groundouts, and threw six-straight shutout innings to help the Panthers secure a 3-1 victory over the North Stars.

“She just settled in and got into a real nice rhythm and did a great job hitting her spots,” Panthers coach Josh Sanew said. “She had everything working. The spin was good and kept them off-balanced, and the defense made some plays behind her. You’ve got to play defense and pick up your pitcher, and what an all-around performance from this team.”

Miller finished the game allowing just one run in the first inning off a solo home run. She also struck out six while not allowing a single walk. But even with the outing, Miller admitted that her confidence didn’t rise as the innings went on, especially knowing a majority of the players on the team through her club team.

“From the beginning to the end, my confidence stayed right around the same point because you never know what can happen in these games,” Miller said. “But with our hitters coming through in the first inning, I think it helped me settle a bit more.”

Gianna Frcek gave the Panthers (17-6 overall, 9-4 DuKane) the lead for good in the bottom of the first inning, hitting a two-out, two-run single to centerfield to make it 2-1. The Panthers would add on an insurance run in the sixth on an RBI double from Chloe Banish.

“That insurance run was huge because that gives us a little more confidence at the end of the game,” Sanew said. “But the hitting was big. The two-out RBIs in the first were big, and then we had a two-out hit that led to Chloe getting a chance for that big hit. And that two-run lead gave an extra little bit of confidence now that we weren’t walking on eggshells. But that was just a good all-around performance.”

Both Miller and Sanew also mentioned how important the win was with playoffs around the corner. The Panthers are the seventh-seed in the Class 4A Bartlett sectional, and now hold wins over both the top-seeded North Stars and second-seeded St. Charles East.

“For us to go ahead and compete with teams like St. Charles North, we’ve earned that respect from them,” Sanew said. “That’s important for us because when they leave, they know we’re the scariest seventh-seed in the sectional seedings.”

Julianna Kouba gave the North Stars (20-2, 11-2) the early lead in the contest with a solo shot over the left-field wall in the first inning. It was one of three hits the junior had on the day, which included a two-out double in the top of the seventh that bought the potential tying run to the plate in Abby Zawadzki (2 for 4), who had a long fly out to end the game.

“Julianna’s been red hot for about two weeks now,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “She started out on fire, had a little dip and now she’s back to crushing the ball. If you put the ball anywhere she can hit it, she’s going to do it. She’s just clicking right now.”

The North Stars, who were looking to clinch their first outright DuKane Conference title since 2023 with a win, finished with nine hits in the contest, but only had consecutive hits in the first and fifth innings that held them to just one run for just the second time this season, with the only other time being a 1-0 victory over St. Charles East back on April 17.

“We just got beat there,” Poulin said. “Miller did a great job keeping us off-balance with our timing and they came through with two-out RBIs. And when you give them life a little bit with mistakes, that’s the recipe for the season ending in a week. There’s a good lesson from this. We’ve got to be sharp, crisp and play consistent winning softball.”