Softball: Marquette pitching slows down Newark for 1A sectional title

NEWARK – To beat the best, you have to play your best, and that was just about the lone advantage Marquette Academy had over Newark in their 1A sectional championship game.

But it was enough.

Against a Norsemen lineup that averaged 10 runs a game in its 19 wins this season and 11 per contest in this postseason, sophomores Kaylee Killelea and Lindsey Kaufmann teamed up in the circle to limit NCHS to just three runs on four hits. Backed by uncommonly solid defense and timely hitting, they earned the Crusaders their second sectional championship in school history with an intense, 5-3 nail-biter on a hot and sunny Thursday afternoon.

“I told the girls if we had only one error, we’d have a chance, and fortunately for us, it happened tonight. The whole team played well and against a really good team, too.”

—  Marquette softball coach Brad Oakes

Izzy Garkey had a two-run single in the decisive three-run fourth inning, and Killelea and Eva McCallum each drove in one against losing pitcher Kaitlyn Schofield and reliever Kody Rizzo to earn a spot in the Illinois Wesleyan 1A Supersectional.

There, at Carol Willis Park and Inspiration Field in Bloomington at 4:30 p.m. Monday, the 12-8 Cru will face the Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond co-op for a spot in the state finals in Peoria the following weekend. The Knights defeated Argenta-Oreana 2-1 in their sectional finale.

“Hey, we’re already farther than I expected us to be this year, so we’re just gonna try to keep rolling one game at a time,” laughed Marquette coach Brad Oakes, who with the win reached 100 in his career. “Obviously, this is the best game we’ve played this year. Kaylee pitched great, and Lindsey did a great job coming in, McCallum was outstanding behind the plate, Izzy and Paige (Cottingim) both had some big hits, and I’m pretty sure we had just one error in the field.

“I told the girls if we had only one error, we’d have a chance, and fortunately for us, it happened tonight. The whole team played well and against a really good team, too.”

Marquette staked their pitcher to a 1-0 lead in the first on singles by Kaufmann and McCallum, then widened the gap with the critical fourth. Cottingim singled, and Miah Ferracuti walked, but after the second out Kaufmann’s pop-up toward third base bounced off a glove for an error and a Cru run. Garkey then followed a walk to Killelea with a two-RBI single to right-center field to make it 4-0.

The Norsemen (19-4) climbed back within a run in the fifth, starting with a walk to Kailey Wohead and a single by Rizzo. With one out, a bloop Skyler Chaveon hit plated a run and, with two outs, Kaitlyn Schofield looped a single to right to drive in two more.

That’s when Oakes made the move to replace a tiring Killelea, who had been through the Norsemen order twice, with the slower-but-fresher Kaufmann to give Newark a different look and keep its potent lineup off-balance.

It worked, as Kaufmann retired seven of the eight batters she faced the rest of the way, including getting the top three hitters in the order after No. 9 hitter Rizzo doubled leading off the home seventh.

“When you get to this point, everybody’s good. We didn’t play our best game.”

—  Newark softball coach Tim Schofield

Marquette added a run in the sixth when Nora Rinearson dribbled a single, stole second and third and scored on a hit by Killelea.

The Crusaders, who with the win avenged a wild 4-2 loss to Newark back on May 15, finished with 10 hits, two each by McCallum and Cottingim.

Rizzo’s two hits accounted for half of the Norsemen total.

“When you get to this point, everybody’s good,” said Newark coach Tim Schofield. “We didn’t play our best game. We had some mental mistakes, we had some errors in the field. … You can stomach it if you played your best and the other team just beats you. Then it’s hat’s off. But hey, that’s life. …

“We’re young. We have three freshmen on the field, and it shows sometimes and when you’re young, maybe you panic a little bit in pressure situations, and it doesn’t get any more pressure-filled than this.

“We just needed that one more hit. We had runners on second and third twice (in the second with one out, in the third with two outs). ... We just couldn’t get that key hit and, unfortunately for us, they did.”