United Red Storm vs. Forreston Cardinals
(5/31/10)
Memorial Day
First off, I want to dedicate this entry on Memorial Day to those who lost their lives in military action serving our country.
With the way the postseason schedule played out, this is Supersectional day in Class 1A/2A baseball and softball. With thunderstorms that ravaged much of the state early in the morning, a few supersectionals were postponed.
It was an early morning wakeup call to head into the office, arriving around 5:45 a.m. It was a light workload, but heavy load early on. At about 9:00 a.m. with a rain falling, I decided to gamble and drive on up to Orion. They had not yet received any rain, but it looked like a strong cell was heading that way. Driving up I-74 north of Galesburg, the rains really hit, and as I got just south of Woodhull, it really started coming down, to the point I could barely see. There was also a lightning show in the north skies.
Five minutes to 10:00 a.m. I received a text from Monmouth Review-Atlas sports editor Marty Touchette. He informed me that the game had been postponed an hour, to 1:00. At this point, I was only five miles from Orion, so I would have an extra hour at the park.
Shortly after 10:00, I pulled into town and stopped at Casey's for a Gatorade. I chose Lemon-Lime. Walking out, the Bertelsen's were pulling up, Rick and Traci. We talked for a moment, and mentioned the game time had been changed to 12:30, which I had also just received a text from Touchette with the same info.
Down to the high school, there was still a light, but steady rain falling. I waited out the rainfall, before gathering up the radio equipment and headed over to the diamond. I had brought a tarp just in case, to keep the equipment covered. Orion athletic director Nathan DeBaille had mentioned in an email over the weekend that he would have a tent for the media.
There was barely a soul at the field, with a lady just arriving at the gate to the parking lot, and DeBaille and another Orion employee were getting stuff out to prepare the field. Everytime I go to Orion, I park in the parking lot at the high school, and not on the road to the south of the diamond (which is a quicker walk). There is a lot of ground to cover from the high school parking lot over to the ball diamond. With a lot of rain, it was a pretty soggy walk, too.
Rick and Traci Bertelsen were the only other souls on the field. Traci was keeping track of the radar, and it looked fairly promising that the rain was going to quit soon. She also mentioned that they have a nephew that plays baseball at ROWVA, a team that has made deep postseason runs the past two seasons, but both United softball and ROWVA baseball have played on the same days. ROWVA fell by a run in the Sectional championship on Saturday in Jacksonville to host Routt Catholic. They also mentioned that the team was waiting a little bit before making the trip, holding off in Alexis, and the girls were playing spoons.
The umpires were the first people to walk up, and asked if there were any cafe's or restaurants in town. None of us knew of anything. Forreston pulled up shortly afterwards, and I am not sure what time this was. It was pretty early, and the team headed inside to unwind in the Orion gymnasium.
It was time to set up the tent, with DeBaille, Bertelsen, and myself hoisting the roof that would be over the media contingency's heads. It took me a moment to get it figured out, despite putting up these types of tents for several years doing live broadcasts. Once the tent was set up and the tables were layed out, I started unpacking my equipment. First, I wanted to hang the banner. The game would be on Sunny 97.7 WMOI, and I could unveil our brand news WMOI sports banner, since this was the first sports broadcast on the station since we got the new banners a couple months ago (the other games were on 1330 WRAM). As I pulled out the banner from the tube that was labeled, "Sunny Sports Banner", it was not. Instead, the 1590 WAIK banner was put inside this tube. Luckily, I had the WRAM/WMOI Regional Sports Coverage banner in my car from Saturday, so I headed back to pull the banner switcheroo.
While walking back, United Red Storm softball coach Gary Eyler was struggling bringing up a cooler filled with water for the team, and the batting nets. I said I would help on my way back in a second. He ended up taking the net, and leaving the cooler, so I picked it up on my way back to the diamond. He met me, and hauled it back over to the dugout.
DeBaille asked my opinion on what music he should play over the P.A. between classic rock and Jock Jams. I said whatever you're feeling. Working in radio stations, I tend to tune music out. Nathan opted for the classic rock to get things going, and the only song I can remember was "Wayward Son" by Kansas. The Jock Jams would come later, as the teams took infield.
With the radio equipment set up, I made my way out beyond the outfield fences, where the Forreston Cardinals were. I spoke with head coach Paul Everding, in his 3rd season as Cardinals head coach. His team is coming off first-ever regional and sectional championships. He said the program had not even been .500 before a few years ago. The Cardinals bring in a (25-13) record, and had just two games postponed, and only one game was cancelled during the regular season. They have 13 losses, but are well-tested in the northwestern portion of the state, facing teams like Dakota, Lanark Eastland, Milledgeville/Polo, and Orangeville. Forreston comes out of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference. The Red Storm have knocked out a team from that league in the Supersectionals the past two seasons.
Back under the media tent, I sat with Freeport Journal-Standard writer Jeremy Anders, Moline Dispatch writer Terry Duckett, and Monmouth Review-Atlas writer Marty Touchette. In fact, today is Marty's birthday, and he would only tell me he is 39 again. Other media folk at the game were KWQC-TV's Thom Cornelis, and WQAD-TV's Amy Calderon.
The itinerary for today's events read that the National Anthem would be played at 12:28, with the first pitch at 12:30. At 12:22, the Anthem played, with my pregame interview just beginning to play. This really put a kink on my pregame show, and the Red Storm stepped up to the plate soon after, forcing me to cut out of the interview just over halfway through. The first pitch was thrown at 12:24.
United batted first, after Forreston won the coin toss to be the home team. Sommer Foster hit a one-out single, and would score on a Katie Bertelsen RBI single. This would be the only run the Red Storm would need, as they would move on with a, 4-0 win.
Bertelsen sat down the first three batters via strikeout, and did the same in the 2nd inning, and the 3rd inning....and yes, again in the 4th inning. She would strikeout the first 12 batters, before getting the 5th inning leadoff hitter (Katarah DeVries) to fly out, which appeared to be an extra-base hit, before a jetting Michelle Ravel flew in from rightfield to make the catch, keeping Bertelsen's no-hitter intact. Bertelsen finished with 16 strikeouts, and a no-hitter.
United plated their 2nd run of the game in the 5th inning with Gina Long scoring after reaching on a single. Michelle Ravel hit a solo home run over the left field fence in the 6th inning. In her previous at-bat, in the 4th inning, Ravel reached on a base hit, and advanced to 2nd base on a sac bunt by Katie Kaywood. She would then reach 3rd base on an error, and as she slid into the bag, it popped loose, and there was a short delay to pound it back in the dirt.
Kaitlyn Winkler jacked a solo home run in the top of the 7th inning to finish off the Red Storm scoring. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Bertelsen walked Becca Wienand on four pitches, which broke up a perfect game bid. Karissa Ludwig stepped up and popped out for the first out of the inning. Alex Ludwig then hit a sac bunt to move Wienand into scoring position with two outs. Katarah DeVries popped out to a hard charging 3rd baseman Kaitlyn Winkler to end the game, and send the Red Storm to the Class 1A state finals for the 3rd straight year.
After the game and the Supersectional plaque ceremony, the Red Storm sang Happy Birthday to Marty Touchette on the middle of the diamond. Instead of taking the rest of the holiday off, I headed back into the station to upload video from the day, as well as the audio broadcast. A special playlist has been added featuring United softball videos from this season. This can all be seen (and heard) at www.ihssn.net.
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