The Seneca softball team battled to the very end but came up just short in a 3-1 loss to Carterville in Saturday's IHSA Class 2A championship on OSF Healthcare Field inside the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria. The Fighting Irish ended the season 39-3.

Seneca and Carterville clash for the 2A softball title Saturday, June 6, 2026, in Peoria. Carterville took the win 3-1 in a tight game.

Some unlikely heroes – and some likely ones too – came through when the Seneca softball team needed it most Thursday in the Fighting Irish’s wild 8-6 Class 2A state semifinal victory over IC Catholic at Peoria’s Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

Gardner-South Wilmington's softball team dropped a 10-inning thriller 2-1 to Waltonville in Thursday's IHSA Class 1A state semifinals in Peoria before bouncing back with a 10-5 win over Okawville in Friday's third-place game, ending the program's historic season with a win.

Seneca and IC Catholic play a thrilling game in the 2A softball state semifinal Thursday in Peoria. Seneca took the win 8-6 and will advance to the finals on Saturday.

Sycamore pitcher Bella Jacobs was voted conference MVP by Interstate 8 coaches as the champion Spartans had five first-team selections. Ottawa and Morris had four selections each, Kaneland and La Salle-Peru had two each and Rochelle had one.

Seneca junior pitcher Hayden Pfeifer scattered four hits, walked one and struck out 11 in leading the softball Fighting Irish to a 3-0 Class 2A supersectional victory over Brimfield at EastSide Centre on Monday.

With their 2-0 upset of Macon Meridian in the Class 1A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional on Monday, the Gardner-South Wilmington softball team is enjoying something no other GSW softball team has enjoyed before. They’re heading to state.

The Gardner-South Wilmington softball team is headed to state after defeating Meridian 2-0 in the Class 1A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional at Inspiration Field at Carol Willis Park in Bloomington Monday, June 1, 2026.

Seneca overcame a seventh-inning Beecher rally for a 6-5 victory in the IHSA Class 2A Pontiac Sectional championship on Friday, May 29, 2026.

Behind elite defense and another dominant outing from ace Maddie Simms, Gardner-South Wilmington punched its ticket to the supersectional while ending Serena‘s cinderella postseason run with a 4-1 victory on Friday night.

After Beecher turned a three-run deficit to a one-run lead with a two-out rally in the top of the seventh, Seneca's Emma Mino delivered the walk-off single in the Class 2A Pontiac Sectional championship to give the Fighting Irish their first sectional title in program history.

Providence sophomore Macie Robbins threw a one-hitter and Bella Olszta sparked the Celtics' offense in a 2--0 Class 3A sectional title win over Morris Friday.

Serena senior pitcher Cassie Walsh blasted a tie-breaking two-run homer in the top of the seventh, then retired Newark in order in the Huskers' wild 10-8 win over the Norsemen in Wednesday's Class 1A Indian Creek Sectional softball semifinal in Shabbona.

Lockport looks to keep playoff run going, Providence on fire right now and more in the Herald-News softball notebook.

The Seneca Fighting Irish softball team defeated the Bishop McNamara Fightin’ Irish 9-2 in the IHSA Class 2A Seneca Regional championship game Friday to win its third straight regional title and sixth in the last 10 years.

Morris senior pitcher Mylie Hughes threw a no-hitter and recorded her 500th career strikeout Friday, leading her team past Plano 10-0 in six innings in the Class 3A Plano Regional final.