Perhaps because she had never accomplished the feat before, or maybe because she was just focused on the job at hand, but Lincoln-Way West catcher Reese Forsythe didn’t know that she was a home run short of hitting for the cycle coming up for her sixth-inning at-bat against Lockport in the championship game of the WJOL Tournament.

Forsythe had led off the game with a triple, then singled in the second inning and doubled in the fifth. She came up in the top of the sixth with her team leading by seven and two runners on base. She caught hold of a pitch and drove it high and deep to right. The substantial wind caught hold of it and carried it over the fence for the cycle-clinching home run.

Winning pitcher Abby Brueggmann retired the Porters without scoring in the bottom of the sixth and the Warriors came away with an 11-1 win to win the tourney title. It capped a dominant tournament for the Warriors, who outscored their opponents 39-4 in their three wins.

“That’s the first time I have ever hit for the cycle,” Forsythe said. “I didn’t even know I did it.

“Our team really swung the bats well. Everyone was ready to attack early in the count and we got out to a nice lead. With Abby pitching, we feel like if we score four or five runs, we’re in real good shape, and we’ve been scoring a lot of runs.”

Forsythe nearly had a partner in the cycle category. Tournament MVP Kaylea Armstrong had a homer, double and single in her first three trips to the plate, but walked in her fourth at-bat to finish a triple shy of the cycle.

“I knew I needed the triple for the cycle,” Armstrong said. “That’s the toughest one. We just came out swinging right from the start. We know that we don’t need to score a lot with Abby pitching. It seems like she feeds off of us scoring, then the hitters feed off of her not allowing any runs.

“We have all been playing together for so long, we are very close. Not only in games and practice, but away from softball as well. We hang out together in school and we know everyone would do anything for someone else.”

While Forsythe and Armstrong were the key figures in the onslaught, the Warriors (9-3) were equal-opportunity destroyers. They collected 18 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. Besides the homers from Forsythe and Armstrong, Hannah Borchert and freshman Reegan Connolly each homered, while Reese Cusack doubled. Borchert, Paige Seivert and Connolly all had two RBIs.

Forsythe hit the third pitch of the game off the fence in right-center and sped around the bases for a triple. She scored on a sacrifice fly to deep right by Seivert. After Molly Finn flew out to deep center, Armstrong gave left field a try and her shot cleared the fence for a solo homer and a 2-0 lead.

It was all Brueggmann needed. The righty, who helped herself by going 3 for 4 at the plate, allowed three hits and struck out six in six innings. The only blemish was a solo homer by Lockport’s Olivia Piccola.

“Our hitters have been seeing the ball well so far,” West coach Heather Novak said. “They have also made good adjustments from game-to-game to at-bat-to-at-bat. Everyone is doing a great job of executing. We had a lot of quality at-bats today, and Reese Forsythe is doing a great job as a leadoff hitter.

“Abby Brueggmann did a great job getting ahead of hitters. We play very good defense, so if our pitchers don’t walk a lot of people, it’s going to hard for teams to have big innings against us. We are able to get outs when we need them.”

The Warriors got a two-run homer from Connolly in the third inning, a two-run shot by Borchert and an RBI single by Seivert in the fifth and an RBI single by Brueggmann and the three-run homer by Forsythe in the sixth.

“We had some good at-bats, but it is what it is,” Lockport coach Marissa Chovanec said. “Give credit to Lincoln-Way West. They played very well today. Now, we’ll see them twice, maybe three more times, before the season’s over.

“You have to give a lot of thanks to [athletic director] Steve Millsaps at Joliet West for getting this tournament in. It’s a great tournament with great competition and it was an honor to be in the championship game for another year.”

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

The following players were named All-Tournament:

Kaylea Armstrong (MVP), Lincoln-Way West; Reese Forsythe, Lincoln-Way West; Abby Brueggmann, Lincoln-Way West; Reegan Connolly, Lincoln-Way West; Alexis Vander Tuuk, Lockport; Olivia Picciola, Lockport; Taylor Lane, Lockport; Carly Karales, Lincoln-Way Central; Mia Degliomini, Lincoln-Way Central; Macie Robbins, Providence; Addison Crumly, Minooka; Lexi Rezzardi, Joliet Catholic; Laci Cole, Joliet West; Rileigh Eddy, Coal City.