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NEWARK – When Ryan Williams started her Friday morning she never envisioned what a great day was in store for her on the softball diamond.
The Newark junior left-handed hitting standout produced the finest day of her prep career to date posting a triple, a double and a walk-off three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that gave her a whopping seven runs batted in on the day.
Williams’ tremendous performance helped provide the Norsemen with a dominating 19-2, four-inning, Class 1A regional championship victory on their home field over Little Ten Conference rival Indian Creek on Friday afternoon.
“No sir, I didn’t figure a game like this was ahead for me and for our team when I got out of bed today definitely not!” Williams said. “I just wanted to help my team any way I could and I was able to put together a pretty good day at the plate that I’m pretty proud of. But I wasn’t the only one on this great team that hit the ball well today. We all came through in a big win for our school for sure.”
Newark (29-1) – the No. 2-ranked team in this week’s Illinois Coaches Association Class 1A poll – plastered a total of 17 hits and five homers to give the Norsemen 29 round trippers so far this season and nine during the first two games of the playoffs.
Newark will now take on either Dwight or Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell in the Class 1A Walther Christian Sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at Melrose Park’s Ruby Field.
The Norsemen have now won seven consecutive softball regional championships and their 13th overall since the inception of the program back in 2000.
“We talked as a team about being selective at the plate and getting a good pitch to hit and I think we did that well today,”
— Tim Schofield, Newark softball coach
“We talked as a team about being selective at the plate and getting a good pitch to hit and I think we did that well today with not too many bad swings,” Newark coach Tim Schofield said. “We got rolling, never stopped and for a school or 150 of so winning another regional in the rich history of our program is pretty special. It’s our second goal reached this season, but we have much more to achieve.”
Indian Creek (13-10) saw its season come to an end, but put an early scare into the Norsemen when it put up two runs in the top of the first against Newark starting and winning pitcher Kaitlyn Schofield (13-0, 4 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 10 K, 1 BB).
Mahala Gonzalez (two hits) stroked an RBI single, while Avery Boehn blasted a run scoring double to left that gave the Timberwolves a 2-0 lead after a half-inning.
“We might have made them a little nervous in the first inning but they sure didn’t show it after that,” Indian Creek coach Denver Davis said. “Dang, Newark can hit the ball and they’re a high state ranked team for a reason. We wish them the best for them and all in all it was a good season for us despite what happened today.”
Junior Dani Peshia started Newark’s homer barrage in the bottom of the first when she blasted a two-run bomb to left center that tied the score at 2-2 after one inning. It was her sixth homer of the year.
“I have my routine and I hit the first pitch I saw really solid and it got us even after a rough start,” Peshia said.
The Norsemen would score seven runs in the bottom of the second started by No. 8 hitter Kate Bromeland’s first homer of the season to put Newark ahead 4-2.
“It was an 0-2 pitch and their pitcher gave me one on the inside and I just went ‘poof’ when I hit it.” Bromeland said. “It was such a great feeling to get my first home run of the year.”
Kaitlyn Schofield (three hits, four runs) then added her first RBI of the game followed by Williams three-run triple and Peyton Wohead’s sacrifice fly that gave Newark a 9-2 lead after two innings.
Kaitlyn Schofield belted her ninth homer of the season to open the home half of the third as the Norsemen went up 11-2.
“It felt good off the bat and I dialed in,” Kaitlyn Schofield said. “We were able to get a few more runs after that.”
Williams added an RBI double, Bre Dixon (three hits) a run scoring double, Bromeland an RBI base knock before Dorothy Wood concluded the uprising with a sharp single to center that put Newark up 15-2 after three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, junior Kodi Rizzo led off with her fourth homer of the year before Kaitlyn Schofield singled and Peshia reached on an error. All that was left was for Williams to end her amazing day with the three-run bomb to left center that capped Newark’s seventh straight regional crown.
“I got all of that ball and I’ve been working very hard in practice on my hitting,” Williams said. “After today, I’m so happy for all of us and I can’t wait to experience what’s ahead of us next week.”