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1990 Hall state softball team, pitcher double up for Hall of Fame · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety Hall State softball team pitcher double up for
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  Hall of Fame. Written by Kevin Hieronymous, this article is
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  being read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  The best team and pitcher of any era of Hall
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  softball and one of the Red Devil's best all round
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  athletes make up the twenty twenty five Hall High School
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  Hall of Fame class. Hall's nineteen ninety state softball team,
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  Wendy Becker class of nineteen ninety and John Boog Matthews
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  class of nineteen seventy nine will take their place in
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  the Hall of Fame between games of Friday's boys basketball action.
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  With eerie Prophetstown Red Devil's reign, the nineteen ninety Hall
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  softball team earned a repeat trip to state on the
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  heels of an appearance the year before. The Red Devils
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  were dominating in the return, going thirteen to three in
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  the regular season with a seven zero run as NCIC
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  champions before defeating Putnam County nine zero and Saint Bede
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  ten zero at regionals and Prairie Central zero and Dunlap
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  three to two at Sectionals. The Red Devils may have
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  won the state championship but an unfortunate mishap erased what
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  would have been the game winning run on a bases
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  loaded walk against Casey Westfield in the state quarterfinals, Hall
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  Runners failed to advance to the next base during the
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  mass celebration at the plate, and Casey Westfield won the
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  appeal and went on to defeat Hall six to two
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  to nine innings. Casey Westfield, which also knocked off Hall
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  in the nineteen eighty eight state quarterfinals eight to one,
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  would go on to win the state championship, its third
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  in five years. We were such a competitive group of
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  softball players. I always said I'd go to war and
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  share a fox hole with anyone one of them. Hallcatcher
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  Stacey Ring said, playing at a time when it was
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  just two classes, it was such a tough road to
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  be able to make it to State. Ring said her
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  her fondest memory of the state game was looking around
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  and seeing the fan support and all the people that
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  traveled all the way down there to cheer us on.
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  Team members are Marina Andrede, Wendy Becker, Penny Booker, Kerry Carlson,
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  Gina Philippini, Lynn Hewitt, Chell Mixon, Ring, Gina Rodgers, Margaret Stergles,
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  Cindy Wurtz, Joanna wallsh teresas Eeglis, and Trisha Zeal. Dominating
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  Ace Becker was the ace pitcher of the Lady Devil's
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  state softball teams. The Dominating Devil through five perfect games,
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  twelve no hitters, and five one hitters for her career,
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  Becker posted a forty ten record with three saves between
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  nineteen eighty eight to ninety one, with a stingy era
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  of zero point ninety eight. She ended her run amassing
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  four to sixty six strikeouts, averaging ten point five per
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  game while walking only seventy seven and allowing only one
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  hundred and three runs. Becker won two regional championship games,
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  two sectional titles, and pitched in two Elite eight games.
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  She lost only two NCIC Conference games in four seasons,
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  both by just one run. She was an All Area
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  first team pitcher three times and was Hall's most valuable
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  player twice. Athlete of the Year, a local sportswriter once
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  said in the late nineteen seventies, if there is an
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  athlete of the Year award in the Illinois Valley area,
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  it has to be John Matthews. During his senior year
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  Matthews earned All conference honors in football, basketball, and track
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  in the highly competitive NCIIC. He was a three year
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  varsity football player, earning All NCIC recognition in his junior
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  and senior years. On the basketball court, Matthews was a
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  four year letterman, earning MVP and All State honorable mention
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  as a junior and team captain. His senior year, Despite
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  being just five foot eleven, he set a record with
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  three hundred and four rebounds, outworking taller opponents to dominate
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  the glass. However, it was track where Matthews truly shined.
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  An NCIC champion for three years, he qualified for the
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  state finals for three years, missing only his senior year
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  because of injury. As a freshman, Matthews shattered the four
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  hundred forty yard dash record at Hall, a record that
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  stood for twenty three years. He also led Hall to
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  its first district championship, scoring eighteen of the team's thirty
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  four points, winning the one hundred, two hundred and four
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  hundred forty yard dashes. As a sophomore, he took sixth
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  at state in the four hundred and forty yard dash.
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  He returned to state in his junior year. Meedling in
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  the one hundred yard dash eighth, the four forty yard
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  dash third, and the two hundred twenty yard dash second.
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  His coach, the late Roly Morris, said, I've never before
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  coached anyone as athletic and as willing to work hard
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  as John Matthews does. You name it, and he does it.
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  Matthews excelled in the classroom, too, receiving many academic honors.
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  He continued his track career at Bradley University, then served
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  six years in the Navy before finishing his degree in
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  industrial engineering from cal State. He is an Industrial Engineer
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  manager at Tesla