District 20 softball: Cara Kilmartin, Oglesby best La Salle for Minor League title

LA SALLE – To win a game at any level of baseball or softball, a team needs three things: solid efforts in pitching, hitting and fielding.

While Oglesby and La Salle fared pretty well in the first two of those aspects in their Little League District 20 Minor Division (ages 8-10) softball tournament final at St. Mary’s Field on Thursday night, the former had a slight but game-changing edge in defense that – with a gutsy performance by pitcher Cara Kilmartin – has Oglesby playing this weekend.

Despite suffering an ankle sprain that almost forced her from the game, Kilmartin toughed it out and finished with 15 of the 18 outs she recorded by strikeout to go along with only two walks, one of those intentional. She added a bunt single – her third hit of the night – in a clinching three-run rally in the fifth inning to lead Oglesby to a 13-5 victory over their neighbors to the north.

Oglesby will travel to Keystone Park in River Forest to begin the Little League state tournament Saturday. There it will play a 4 p.m. contest against the winner of the 11 a.m. matchup between District 17-Tri-County and District 5-Moline.

“We played tonight the way we want to play,” Oglesby coach Chris Salazar said. “When you put the ball in play, good things happen ... and we’re aggressive on the bases. I’m proud of them, all of them.

“Cara really gutted it out. She got hurt, but instead of coming out, she continued to battle. … You can’t ask a player to do something like that. It all comes from within. She wanted to win, and she took it.”

Deserving a better fate was losing pitcher Mya Rosploch, who struck out 13 and walked only three. However, the defense behind her committed eight errors, making 10 of the 13 runs scored off her unearned.

Oglesby started with three runs in the first, beginning with a walk to Elinna Opsal, a misplayed fielder’s choice by Kilmartin and an RBI single by Elyse Grubich. After Kilmartin scored on a wild pitch, Grubich came across on a single by Sienna Combs.

In the bottom half, La Salle got one run back on a walk to Mia Walker and an error, but Oglesby answered with two in the second on an error and back-to-back singles by Opsal and Kilmartin for a 5-1 advantage.

It went to 6-1 in the third on a single by Ella Jane Burke and an error. La Salle made it 6-3 in the bottom of the third on two errors, a walk to Tenley Pyszka and a two-run single to right by Rosploch. Three more errors and assorted other misplays keyed a four-run visitors fourth to make it 10-3 Oglesby.

Kilmartin was cruising when, after two strikeouts in the fourth, she was walking back to the rubber and stepped in a spike hole, falling with a turned left ankle. Coaches briefly considered taking her out of the game then, but she bounced back to fan the next hitter.

Due up third in the top of the fifth, she again remained in and bunted for a hit that loaded the bases. She ended up scoring one of three runs in the inning for a 13-3 lead.

La Salle touched her for two in their fifth on singles by Walker and Pyszka, an error and a fielder’s choice by Rosploch, but that was all.

“I just thought of winning,” Kilmartin said. “La Salle is a good team. This was the toughest game we played. … Winning the district is great. I think we’ll celebrate by dumping water on our coach.”

The only outs not by strikeouts were a lineout and a tag at the plate in the third and the game’s final out, a grounder fielded by Grubich for a force. La Salle managed only three hits, the singles by Walker, Pyszka and Rosploch.

“Both teams played very hard, both pitchers did well, and they’re both good teams,” La Salle coach Chris Gedraitis said. “They put a lot of hard-hit balls in play, and we made plays on some of them and then we didn’t make some plays. These girls are 9 and 10, and that happens.

“The ball didn’t bounce our way tonight, but we wish Oglesby the best of luck moving on.”