3A Softball: Fifth-inning homer carries Rock Island past La Salle-Peru to regional title

DUNLAP — The La Salle-Peru Cavaliers had an opportunity for a big inning early in Saturday’s Class 3A Dunlap Regional championship game, but after Taylor Martyn’s third-inning RBI double six feet up the eighth-foot outfield fence scored Addison Duttlinger, the Cavaliers left the bases loaded.

The Rock Island Rocks got their opportunity to put up a crooked number in the home half of the fifth. No. 9 hitting freshman A’rion Lonerage took advantage, sending her fly ball above the wind-blocking tree canopy and a foot or so over the fence for a game-changing two-run homer, part of a three-run inning that lifted the Rocks to a 3-1, regional-winning victory over L-P.

La Salle-Peru — the Interstate Eight Conference champion — sees its season come to a close with a record of 25-5.

“They’re a good team,” L-P coach Randy Huebbe said. “They’re a good team, they took advantage today, and we didn’t. ...

“We had a great game plan. We handled their leadoff hitter [Taylor Pannell, who was 0 for 3] very well. That was our plan, to make her go after bad pitches, and if she walked she walked. We’d make their other hitters beat us, and the other ones beat us.

“It’s frustrating with the wind-blown homer. I’d have rather had that go over by 30 feet than just barely go over.”

Rock Island (22-6) advances to face East Peoria in the 3A Washington Sectional.

Lonerage’s home run — which came immediately after L-P pitcher Chloe Mitchell’s only base on balls issued all day and was followed by a pair of perfectly placed hits to plate Rock Island’s other run — completely flipped the script on a game the Cavaliers, to that point, had under control.

Neither Mitchell (6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 7 K) nor Rock Island’s Campbell Kelley (7 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 7 K), were dominant, but both had been successful scattering hits and stranding baserunners until the top of the third. That’s when La Salle-Peru struck first — Duttlinger singling to left, stealing second and scoring on Martyn’s blast of a double three-fourths of the way up the tall fence in left-center.

“We always talk about game situations, timing and all that,” Martyn said. “I knew there was a runner on second, and I knew I had to do something to drive that in. I just did what I could. That pitch was right in my zone, right where I wanted it, and I took it that way.”

Paige Kirkman followed with a bloop single, and Maddy Pangrcic drew Kelley’s lone walk of the day, but with the bases loaded and one away Kelley wiggled out of it without further damage.

It didn’t seem it would matter the way Mitchell was putting up zeroes ... until, that is, the fateful fifth. A one-out walk to Bailey Profitt set the stage for Lonerage’s game-changing blast.

“She’s a freshman, and we hadn’t really found a spot for her,” Rocks coach Chris Allison said of Lonerage. “She’s only got maybe 10 at-bats this season, but she’s been putting quality at-bats in ... she has some power, and she’s going to be good for Rock Island for years to come. ...

“We knew it was going to be a battle today. It’s just one of those [games] where we got a hit when we needed to in a game both pitchers pitched their butts off. It sucks on these days when somebody has to lose, because Randy has a great program and a great team.”

The Cavaliers managed to get the potential tying run to the plate in the sixth thanks to an Ava Lambert single, but that was as much of a threat as they could manage against Kelley and the errorless play of the Rock Island defense.

Kirkman and Duttlinger each provided two hits for L-P — Kirkman’s coming in her Cavaliers finale, with Cassidy Anderson and Maddy Pangrcic also leaving to graduation.

“We’re losing three seniors,” Huebbe said, “but everybody’s back, including all our pitchers. It shouldn’t have ended this way, we had chances ... it just came down to that one [inning].

“But I just told them, this game here does not define your season. We won 25 out of 30 games. I know it hurts right now, but tomorrow I know they’ll wake up and feel better.”