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Seneca survives semifinal scare from IC Catholic, will play for IHSA 2A state championship Saturday · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Seneca survived semi final scare from Icy Catholic, will play
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  for Issa two Estate championship Saturday. Written by J. T. Pidealti,
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  this article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  to you by Everlett. Some unlikely heroes and some likely
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  ones too, came through when the Seneca softball team needed
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  it most Thursday in the Fighting Irish's wild eight sixth
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  Class two A state semifinal victory over Icy Catholic at
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  Peoria's Louisville Slugger Sports Complex. Tessa Crule, who hadn't pitched
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  since a mop up relief appearance in a lopsided regional opener,
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  came in with the bases loaded in the bottom of
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  the fifth and pitched out of the jam to keep
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  Seneca in the game. Her battery mate, little used reserve
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  catcher Cadence Wardlow entered in the third inning when arm
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  issues prevented its starter Lexi Buis from consistently getting the
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  ball back to the pitcher. Team Matekrol replaced in the circle.
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  Hayden Pfeiffer was zero for three in her first three
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  at bats, but lace the go ahead double in the
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  top of the sixth inning just one pitch after emm
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  Amino had tied it with an RBI single. Leadoff hitter
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  Grayson Provence four for four, two stolen bases, Cameron Steccan
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  two hits, one RBI, and flex Kaylee Clinker Insurance RBI
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  single seventh also starred as Seneca thirty nine to two.
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  Rallied from a late deficit with a three run sixth
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  and held on against a resilient icy Catholic effort. Seneca
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  advanced to face Carterville, a three zero winner over Williamsville
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  in the championship game at twelve fifteen pm Saturday. We
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  do our best to treat everybody we've got the same,
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  Seneca coach Brian Holman said. If you watch us, every
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  girl takes infield, every girls gets BP, every girl at
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  our practice is expected to work hard. I've never had
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  it like this before, but now that I see it,
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  when you have depth as a softball team, you make
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  yourself pretty tough. The Knights thirty six proved to be
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  pretty tough themselves, answering Seneca's three run top of the
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  first inning with a couple runs of their own. I
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  see Catholic It's fourteen hit attack led by Sophia d
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  UD's three hits RBI, Sophia Buccaro two hits RBI, Lexie
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  Hoffman two hits, RBI, Ari Zito two hits, two runs
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  scored playing through a hand fracture, and Lexi C. Russ
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  single double both first inning RBIs propric tied Seneca with
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  single runs in both the third and fourth innings before
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  taking its first lead with another run in the fifth.
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  Giving up runs doesn't really rattle us, Russ said. We're
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  a team. We stay calm and when something happens, we
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  pick each other up. That's who we are. We're not
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  only teammates, we're best friends. As coach said, we do
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  fight when we're down. You'll never sees us have our
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  heads down. We're always up. We're always hungry. It's been
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  a season long characteristic of the Knights, who returned to
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  Peoria to play in two a's third place game Friday
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  at twelve thirty p m. I thought we came out
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  a little nervous and made some mistakes I see, Catholic
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  coach Frank Reeber said, but we fought back. We've got
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  a bunch of kids who are injured, but we never
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  quit fighting. Seneca is a good team. We're a good team.
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  We just made a few mistakes defensively that we don't
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  normally make. But I'm proud of my team. They came
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  to fight. It was a rough day right from the
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  beginning for both starting pitchers. I sees Maddie Denino five
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  and two thirds IP seven R six y R eleven
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  h wm bb one K and Seneca Spfeiffer four and
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  two thirds IP five R ten H one bb seven K.
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  Danino was relieved by Lelani Mendez one in one third
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  IP one R zero R one H zero bb one
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  K well. Pfeiffer was chased with two outs in the
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  fifth and the bases loaded the aforementioned situation cruel two
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  in one third IP one IR three H one BB
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  two K wiggled out of My emotions were crazy, Kruel said.
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  I was coming into the game and I was like,
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  I just have to be confident and get the job done.
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  That was going through my mind the whole time. Obviously,
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  I have all the confidence in the world in Hayden.
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  She had the hot hand and was doing great. I
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  just know that when I warm up I have to
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  be confedtant in my spins in all my pitches, and
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  as soon as I come into the game, just pick
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  up where Hayden left off. The game deciding top of
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  the sixth began with two outs and nobody on when
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  Irish number nine hitter Aurora Weber worked a walk. Provence
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  followed with a single and eventually scored the winning run
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  on Feiffer's two run two bagger into right field. Once
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  we got those bats going, we connected as a team,
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  got it all together, got our cheers going, just kind
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  of started to hype each other up. Provence said, I
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  just knew we were going to get on and she
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  was going to get us in. I was just happy
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  for her, happy for all of us. That gave us
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  a boost, and we needed that boost to take off
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  and get this win.