Megan Halverson drifted around second base, seemingly in a daze as her Oswego East teammates poured out the dugout.

Why the delayed reaction?

“I was just making sure my friend Katie [Maday] got home,” Halverson said. “In case she didn’t I needed to stay on the base.”

Halverson could join the celebration, thanks to her heroics.

The Oswego East senior doubled in Maday with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Wolves a 6-5 win over Oswego in Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game.

Snapping a five-game crosstown losing streak – the most recent a 10-0 loss in five innings earlier this season – Oswego East beat Oswego for the first time since 2023.

The Panthers (15-9, 9-2) scored twice in the top of the seventh to tie it, before the Wolves (20-8, 6-6) walked it off with their seventh straight win.

“The last five or six games, that’s kind of our M.O.,” Oswego East coach Sarah Davies said. “We get down a little bit, we come back and we don’t give up until the end. Crystal Lake Central, we were down six going into the seventh and scored eight runs.

“We’ve had a lot of fight and obviously this game we’re a little more excited than the others.”

Maday walked on four pitches leading off the bottom of the seventh against Oswego’s Jaelynn Anthony, on in relief of Adalynn Fugitt.

Anthony retired the next two batters on line outs, and quickly ran the count to 0-2 on Halverson. On the sixth pitch, Halverson lifted a high fly ball between the center fielder and left fielder that just kept carrying, and dropped, as Maday scooted home from first.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play - especially a shot to the outfield is where you need to put it with a runner on base,” Halverson said.

The lefty-hitting Halverson her previous at-bat hit a ground ball single through the middle to drive in two with two out in the fifth, giving the Wolves a 4-3 lead.

A different type of hit, but similar approach worked in the seventh.

“She has just been improving and improving,” Davies said. “Her M.O. is hard on the ground up the middle, especially situations with runners on. Great poise, great grace, doesn’t let a lot faze her. Senior presence.”

Davies’ sophomore pitcher, Faith Hagerty, likewise showed poise under pressure in the top half of the seventh.

Oswego tied it 5-5 on Fugitt’s two-run single, and loaded the bases with two out on Betsy Jack’s line shot off Hagerty’s foot.

But Hagerty came back to retire the dangerous Anthony on a pop up to keep the game tied, setting the stage for Halverson’s heroics.

“Faith and [Oswego East senior catcher] Kylie [Mannis] work really well together and Faith is just calm, cool and collected, always,” Davies said. “She knows Jae, she goes to her mom for a pitching lesson, so they know each other pretty well. But to come in, after Jaelynn hit a double off her before, just a good game.”

Hagerty allowed eight hits, and only struck out one. But on a crisp, breezy day she was able to coax 12 outs by pop up or fly out, the last Anthony’s.

“Most of the time off my rise ball there is a lot of pop ups I get, and then weak ground balls off the curve,” Hagerty said. “I was really kind of just scared at first that last at-bat, and then I just trusted my catcher to throw what she knows to throw.”

Oswego twice rallied from multiple-run deficits.

The Panthers, down 2-0, scored three runs in the fourth to go ahead 3-2 on Kennedy Gengler’s two-run double.

Fugitt had three hits and Anthony and Jack two. Oswego had played 11 innings Tuesday at Yorkville, a game suspended tied 3-3 in the 12th.

Oswego’s loss dropped the Panthers a game back of Yorkville in the conference race.

“I just don’t think we were playing our best ball today. We showed up flat,” Oswego coach Annie Scaramuzzi said. “Not an excuse, but we played 11 innings yesterday. I think both our pitchers were feeling it today. I felt our energy was flat and we deserved to lose that game. I am proud of the fight they had to respond and to bounce back.”

Olivia Owles reached base three times and scored three runs and Katie Silva was 3 for 4 with an RBI and run scored for Oswego East, whose seven-game win streak matched its 7-0 start to the season.

The season’s arc for Halverson has mirrored her team.

“I had the confidence in myself and then it dropped for a second,” Halverson said. “Sometimes you have to not even think. Just hit the ball.”