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Ava Balestri’s homer sparks St. Bede in win over Dwight to end regular season · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Ava bilestries homer sparked Saint Bede and win over Dwight
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  to end regular season. Written by Kevin Schlum, this article
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  is being read by an automated voice brought to you
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  by Everlett. After striking out looking in her first at bat,
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  Saint Bede senior Ava Bilestrie knew what to expect her
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  second time at the plate in the third inning. I
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  knew that change up was coming, especially after my first
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  at bat, Bilestrie said. I picked up on her sequencing
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  high and inside. Then she was going to go slow
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  and low. Bilestri got what she expected and launched the
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  pitch over the center field fence for a three run
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  home run. Bilestrie's blast helped spark the Saint Bede' softball
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  team as it pulled away for a twelve zero, five
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  inning Tri County Conference victory over Dwight in the regular
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  season finale for both teams Friday in Peru. The last
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  time we played them, we struggled our first time through
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  the lineup, and we knew that might be the case today,
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  so Blestrie said, we had to go in with a
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  positive mentality. We did have a slow start with our bats,
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  then the third inning, we kind of lit it up.
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  I'm really proud of everyone for how we played. If
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  everybody didn't have a positive attitude through this game, it
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  would not have ended up like this. The Bruins pushed
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  two runs across in the first inning with the help
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  of two Dwight errors, then were held scoreless in the
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  second inning before Saint Bede got the bats going in
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  the third inning. The second time through the lineup against
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  Dwight pitcher Maddy Ealy. We made adjustments at the plate.
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  Saint Bede coach Rob Ruppert said, she had us off
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  balance early with that change up. She had a really
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  nice change up. But we made adjustments and hit the ball.
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  That's what we do. Emma Slingsby led off the bottom
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  of third inning with a slap single to the left side,
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  and Hannah Heiberger followed with a hard single to right
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  field to set up Blestrie's homer. McLain brought in the
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  fourth run of the inning with a bunt. Emma Sling's
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  got on base, and I think that's what really started it.
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  Bilestre said, I told Emma she opened the gate for that.
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  I couldn't have done it if she didn't get that hit.
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  The Bruins continued to hit well in the fourth, putting
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  up six runs on five hits, including RBI triples by
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  Bilestri and Ella Burke, a run scoring double by Macey Strouch,
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  and an RBI single by Heiburger. While the Saint Bete
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  defense took time to get going, Strauch was dominant throughout
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  in the circle. She allowed two hits and one walk
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  while striking out fourteen batters. She struck out four batters
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  in the second inning and three in each the fourth
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  and fifth. I was hitting my spots pretty well, and
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  so I felt like everything was really working, said Strauch,
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  who eclipsed one hundred strikeouts for the season. After the
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  first time through the lineup, I knew more of their
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  weaknesses and was just putting it where they missed the
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  first time, just using that to our advance. The Bruins,
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  twenty eight to four, enter the postsezs on a thirteen
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  game winning streak. Saint Bete is the number one seed
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  in its sub sectional and opens the class to a
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  Prairie Central Regional on Tuesday against the winner of Monday's
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  game between number nine l Passo Gridley and number eight
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  Paxton Buckley Lota. We've been playing well the last few weeks,
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  Straus said, I feel like we have the potential to
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  go far if we keep playing as a team like
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  we've been doing lately. We have to keep our offense
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  how it's been. We've been doing pretty good with our bats,
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  and then just stay strong with our defense. We can
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  never get too comfortable. We have to keep getting better
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  as the days go on. McKenna Woodcock had two hits,
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  including a double for Dwight seven eighteen, which had snapped
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  a twelve game losing streak on Tuesday. The Trojans, a
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  number five seed, open the Class one A Dwight Regional
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  on Wednesday against number three Gardner South Wilmington. We got
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  in our heads, Dwight coach may I Borgo said about
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  Friday's game. We've seen it in almost every single game
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  that we lost. We get that one inning where we
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  get error after error and we just can't pull ourselves out.
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  It doesn't help that we're down two or our best
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  players due to injuries and we have to start five freshmen.
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  I'm nervous for the playoffs because we're tight on numbers.
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  We have nine who can play, so we're going to
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  be stretched to our limit.