Softball: Killelea leads Marquette back to sectional final

RIVER GROVE – Marquette Academy senior pitcher Kaylee Killelea got stronger and stronger as the game wore on.

So much so that she fanned 11 of the 13 Serena batters during the last four innings, and the Crusaders also took advantage of five Serena errors to earn a 6-2 victory in a Class 1A Walther Christian Sectional semifinal Tuesday at Triton College.

“I just came into the game knowing I had to do my job to get us to the sectional championship game,” Killelea said. “I kind of thought I was pitching pretty well toward the end, and I’m proud to come out with a strong performance today.”

The hard-throwing lefty upped her personal pitching record to 16-3 and has 184 strikeouts this season as Marquette (24-6) – the No. 5-ranked team in the most recent Illinois Coaches Association poll – will take on No. 2-ranked Newark (30-1), which beat Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell 3-2 in nine innings in dramatic fashion in the other sectional semifinal. The local showdown is set for 11 a.m. Saturday in the sectional championship game at Triton.

“Kaylee’s been lights out all year, and we’ve got more to go if we want to get to state,” Marquette coach Brad Oakes said. “[Killelea] was amazing again today during a game in which we didn’t play particularly well in the field. But she carried us today like she’s done all year.”

Killelea allowed one earned run and six hits while walking one batter. Serena (21-9) ended its season by committing five errors in the first three innings that led to the tough-luck pitching loss for sophomore Maddie Glade (6 IP, 6 R, 0 ER, 6 H, 8 K, 0 BB).

“Maddie pitched so well today and we didn’t support her defensively at all,” Serena coach Kelly Baker said. “We just looked like deer in headlights on defense early in the game. Kaylee kept us off-balance especially later in the game; she got stronger the more we couldn’t get to her, and she kept us guessing all game long. Credit to her and Marquette, because they earned the win against us. But I’m proud of our girls and the season we put up.”

Marquette got to Glade in the bottom of the first inning when Lindsey Kaufmann was hit by Glade’s first pitch of the game. Maisy Lyons’ sacrifice bunt was misplayed by the Huskers, which allowed Kaufmann to score all the way from first base as an errant throw sailed into the outfield. That gave the Crusaders a 1-0 lead after one inning.

The Cru added five unearned runs in the bottom of the third after three more Serena errors. Lyons, Eva McCallum, Avery Durdan and Kealy Rick took advantage of the miscues with RBI singles to put Marquette ahead 6-0 after three innings.

The Huskers scored their first run in the top of the fourth when Paisley Twait led off with an infield single. Two outs later, Glade blistered a run-scoring double to the fence in right-center that scored Twait and cut the Serena deficit to 6-1.

In the top of the fifth with two outs, RayElle Brennan reached with a two-out walk before scampering home after the throw on her attempted steal to second base sailed to the fence in center and allowed her to easily score and cut the Huskers’ gap to 6-2.

All that was left from there was for Killelea to strike out five during the last two innings, including the side in the seventh, to put Marquette into its third sectional championship game in program history, with rival Newark waiting in the wings.

“I just think we need to play our game and be calm, cool and collected,” Killelea said. “[Newark] beat us earlier in the season [8-6 on March 20], but I’m really looking forward to seeing if we can win another sectional championship – and I know we can.”