Separated by nine years, Oswego sisters Hailey and Sophie Morland seem inseparable in softball.

Sophie, Oswego’s freshman third baseman, and Hailey, an assistant coach, still recall when kid sister was like a mascot for big sister’s Oswego high school and travel teams, dressed up by their mom in tutus for overnight tournaments.

“I was with the team every second that I could be,” Sophie said. “They win a championship and I was in the picture, running the bases, a little ball magnet.”

Oswego softball, and the Morland sisters, have grown up a whole lot since then.

The school went 22 years without a winning season until Hailey and current head coach Annie Scaramuzzi’s group arrived as players.

Now Oswego, defending Class 4A champs, are headed to state for the third straight year. Making the journey back even sweeter for 24-year-old Hailey, in her fourth year as assistant at her alma mater, is doing it with 15-year-old Sophie, who bats second as Oswego’s youngest player.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Hailey said. “Some days it brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.”

These days, the sisters spend don’t spend much time apart.

Hailey, who works for a general contracting company, moved back home to Oswego from Woodridge during softball season, a busy schedule that starts with 5:30 a.m. lifting.

Hailey picks up and drops off Sophie for games and practices, and sometimes helps get hitting work in before practice.

“It’s helped a ton. Especially with mindset and physical adjustments I can go right to her,” Sophie said. “In the car I can just be like ‘Can you help me with this, what am I doing wrong?’ It’s so easy to go to her.”

The age gap can make Hailey feel like part sister, part another mom to Sophie at times – but she values every moment with one of her favorite people on the planet.

“Sometimes the lines definitely get blurred playing mom, but I think we have a real good balance with our relationship,” Hailey said. “She can come to me to vent. I don’t think it’s ever got to a point where I can’t be around her.”

Hailey, Oswego Class of 2019, was with Scaramuzzi part of the program’s first winning season in 22 years as sophomores, conference champs as seniors.

She played at Dominican University for two years, then transferred to Aurora University

While coaching Sophie’s GenuWin Reign travel team, Hailey connected with then-Oswego coach Paul Netzel through a family friendship between the Netzels and one of Sophie’s teammates.

“Went to an open gym that preseason, met Netzel and that’s how it started for me coaching here,” Hailey said.

Sophie, meanwhile, did not expect to be playing a ton this year.

She started four games in right field, three at second base and one at shortstop before settling in full time at third base the second week of April.

She had big holes to fill at two spots – replacing All-Staters Aubriella Garza at third base, Kiyah Chavez as Oswego’s No. 2 hitter – but hasn’t tried to do too much.

“Just trying to play my role for the team as a two hitter. I have been bunting so much,” Sophie said. “I know I am there to get Adalynn [Fugitt] over, do a job. I am not playing selfish, I am trying to play selfless. I know we have Betsy [Jack], Jaelynn [Anthony] and Ahlivia [East] to get Adalynn in.”

She’s done quite nicely for herself, batting .312 in 109 at bats with three doubles, 24 runs scored and 18 RBIs.

“She has done a great job of knowing she will be her own player,” Hailey said. “Coming in, you look at Garza with 14 homers or Kiyah hitting .571, it can be an ‘Oh shoot I have to live up to that’ moment. We have never tried to put that pressure on her. Be Sophie Morland. She has done a great job accepting that role.”

“She’s always going to get the job done, she’s a super selfless player who’s going to lay her at bat down for her teammates, sacrifice herself,” Scaramuzzi said. “She’s been put in that situation quite a lot because of how Adalynn gets on base. Sophie has done a great job embracing that role.”

That place on the team goes beyond what Sophie brings between the lines.

“I think she has brought a lightness to our team,” Hailey said. “Even though she’s one of the younger kids, she’s always the loud one, the one cheering in highlight reels. Something we have tried to preach to our team is take up space, bring your own energy. She has fully grown into that.”

So, too, has Sophie and Hailey’s growth as sisters, and as player and coach over the years, first in travel and now high school softball.

“It was definitely a lot harder at the start, was always easier for us to bicker at each other,” Sophie said. “As a 10 or 11-year-old you don’t like hearing ‘You have to do this and you have to do that.’ I would get heated. As we grew ourselves and as siblings it got a lot better. She is never too hard on me and I’m never yelling. When we’re on the field that’s my coach, not my sister.”

It’s unbelievable to Sophie that she will be taking the field next on Friday at state. Oswego plays Mundelein at 4:45 p.m. at the Louisville Slugger Complex in Peoria.

“I honestly don’t think it has fully registered that we are going to state,” Sophie said. “I don’t think it will until we get there.”

While it’s not a new experience for Hailey, it will be with her sister.

“I am so blessed to be able to share this with her,” Hailey said. “I never thought about it last year because I was so focused on that team but oh my gosh, now to have her with me, it makes my heart want to explode.”