IHSA Class 1A Knoxville Softball Sectional
Illini Bluffs vs. Stark County
United vs. Orion
(5/27/10)
With apologies to ZZ Top, they were plenty of "cheap sunglasses" at the I-74 Youth Complex outside of Knoxville on a warm May afternoon. A softball sectional doubleheader was in store after getting washed out the night before. Before the United/Orion game began, I was talking with Knoxville athletic director Chad Bahnks and the scorekeeper in the press box, going over the Red Storm lineup. When they got to Augusta Chandler, I mentioned that you can't miss her in the field, wearing those pink sunglasses, against a red and black uniform. She sticks out, and as a matter of fact a couple of her Red Storm teammates would be wearing the pink sunglasses. Kaitlyn Winkler, at third base, and leftfield Katie Kaywood both sported the pink shades.
I had an interesting discussion before heading over to Knoxville, over the lunch hour with co-worker, Adam Frankhauser. Somehow we talked about our junior high sports careers, and reminisced about the teams we faced. While I had talked about the DePue, Bradford, Neponset, Ladd, LaMoille, and Ohio matchups, I mentioned Manlius. I have always called it, Man-Luhs, while others call it Man-Lee-Us. I don't exactly know which is correct, but I compared it to the Lewistown debate. Is it Lewis-town, or Lewis-ton. After many discussions with those in Fulton County, and based on the actual spelling, I try to say Lewis-TOWN.
Another factoid from my day was when I spoke with Galesburg Silver Streaks baseball coach Arnie Gonzalez. We reflected on last week's Silver Streaks Classic, and how the schedule was revised, three times in total. He mentioned there was a change after phoning East Aurora on Friday morning. At 9:00 a.m. they had already arrived in Galesburg, so they were able to play two games on Friday night.
I had everything prepared for the night's broadcast early in the day, and took off from the radio station shortly after 3:30. When I arrived at the ball diamonds at the junction of Route 97 and 150, I pulled in as the National Anthem was playing.
Heading up to the press box, I started setting the broadcast equipment up. My plan was to first get everything set up, and then head down and soak up the sun and take some video while covering the first game of the night, Illini Bluffs vs. Stark County.
After getting everything set up, it was the bottom of the first inning, and Stark County had a 1-0 lead, off of an RBI triple by Brittany Price. As the sun beamed down on me, I recollected the past few spring sports seasons. I will always live up to my shortcomings, and one of them has been the lack of coverage I have given in past years to the spring seasons. For that, I apologize. I also, in the past, epitomized the "fair weather" fan. If the sun was out, and the temperature was above 65 degrees, I would cover a game. I feel that I broke on through this past March, when for no reason, but to cover a game, I stood in 38 degree weather on a Saturday morning covering the United Red Storm against Rock Island in the Rockridge Tournament. I passed the test, and have braved every element since, this spring.
I had heard the talk coming into the game, that Katie Bertelsen, the United ace, was dealing with an injury, as well as some other United players being banged up. When I spoke with coach Gary Eyler on Wednesday, he said they really needed the rainout to regroup.
When I walked down to watch the first game, I talked with Katie's dad, Rick, and asked him about the situation. He said that she had tweaked her back batting on Monday, and fell to the ground in pain, and hasn't done much this week.
Stark County took a, 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning, with Jasmine Wyant and Mariah Kraft scoring runs. Elizabeth Groter hit a 2-run single, knocking those two runs in. Illini Bluffs tied it up, 3-3 in the 3rd inning. Kenzie Wall and Randi Burton each had RBI singles. The teams seemed to go back-and-forth, with the Rebels breaking the tie with a pair of runs in the 4th inning, giving Stark County a, 5-3 edge. After taking video of a Melissa Streitmatter strikeout, I had nearly started taking video of the Groter at-bat. I wish I would have...
Groter steps up and hits an RBI single into centerfield. The Tigers throw to home trying to get Kraft out at the plate, but it misses the target and hits the backstop, ensuring Groter gets to 2nd base. The catcher tries to get Groter at 2nd, and the throw goes into deep centerfield, allowing Groter to round the bases in one play, and getting credited with a single, and two Illini Bluffs errors.
Kim Long, Gina's mom walked up during the 4th inning, and I gave her a recap of the game, telling her the game had been a pretty sloppy, defensively. Aside from a few errors, there were several plays that were mishandled, or miscommunication, that could have led to even more errors.
One of which, came in the bottom of the 4th inning, with the Stark County centerfielder running in to catch a fly ball. She made the catch, then dropped it, but recovered, and did a juggling act before settling on catching it on her knees. Later in the inning, there was a high throw to 1st base, causing the Tigers baserunner and the Rebels 1st baseman to collide, but the out was made to end the inning.
I arrived at the diamond around 4:15, and the Orion Chargers had already settled in and made themselves comfortable. By 5:15, the United Red Storm were still no where to be seen. Their bus did arrive at 5:25, in the top of the 5th inning of the first game. It was no big deal, because there would be a start time of 7:00 for the second game no matter what time the first game ended.
The Tigers would plate the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the 5th inning, sealing the game. Kenzi Wall scored the game-tying run, after reaching on a single. Burton would score the go-ahead run afer reaching on an RBI single. Burton later added an RBI double in the 6th inning, that made it the final, 7-5 Tigers.
At the conclusion of the game, I walked over to the United side to get the lineup card from assistant coach Hannah Baker. I also joked with coach "Fluff" Tyrell that I shouldn't ride with him anywhere, based on his driving earlier in the night getting to Knoxville.
After getting the lineups, I went upstairs into the press box to write in the stats next to the lineup. It was a media madhouse upstairs, with the Moline Dispatch's Terry Duckett, Galesburg Register-Mail photographer Kent Krieghauser, and KWQC-TV's Dan Pearson hanging out and getting information. Kent took a picture of my lineup cards for reference on shots he was taking, and Pearson jotted down the lineups. When asked about the length of the fences around the field, Chad Bahnks said it was 250 feet. To that, Dan Pearson replied, "That's Beau Spencer distance." Maybe with a golf ball!
During the wait, I uploaded some video, did some tweeting (www.twitter.com/ihssn), and promoted the broadcast on Facebook. I also was checking the IHSA Scorezone, and found it shocking that Pinckneyville was upset by Herrin in the 2A Sectionals, 7-6. This ended the softball coaching career of Greg Hale, with the Panthers winding up (35-2) this year, and Hale goes into retirement with 684 career coaching wins.
Getting back to the fence question, Dan Pearson had asked that question, wondering what the height of the fences were, if he could get a shot while standing over it. He ended by saying he wanted the unique shot, or something to that effect. Speaking of unique, Kent Krieghauser sure found the unique way to snap a photo, climbing a ladder and setting up shop on the United Red Storm dugout's roof.
The big question of the night was how Katie Bertelsen would look, coming in with a back injury. She certainly wasn't at the top of her game, pitching into three full counts in the first inning, and issuing a pair of walks. She did strike out two in the first inning.
United's offense got going early, something that has been an area of concern at times for the Red Storm. Gina Long stepped up and hit a frozen rope over the centerfielder's head, and it must have landed 230-240 feet away from home plate. It also carried back to the wall, enabling Long to run around second for an easy triple.
Tommy LaSorda Moment
With Orion giving chase, Long rounded second and was going to be in at third base with an easy triple. Third base coach "Fluff" Tyrell was giving the wave, an enthusiastic wave sending Long home. In doing so, Tyrell (backpedaling) pulled a Tommy LaSorda and fell backwards on his back. Long, sliding underneath the tag, was called out by about two inches.
Sommer Foster followed that at-bat with a walk, and would score on a Kaitlyn Winkler RBI single, giving United the 1-0 lead. This also matched the score from the regular season meeting between the teams, in which the Red Storm won. That came in game one of the season, and this is game 33.
Orion would go down, 1-2-3 in the next two frames. In fact, Katie Bertelsen would strike out 8 batters, walk 4, and allowed just 2 hits for the win. United would beat Orion, 3-0. Early in the game, on a foul ball, Orion coach Shelly Hutton's husband (and Orion boy's basketball coach) Brent Hutton made a play on a ball, but dropped it. Give him the "E".
United would tack on their only two other runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning, with Long hitting a double and scoring on a passed ball. Kaitlyn Winkler reached on an E4, stole 2nd base, and scored on an RBI groundout by Michelle Ravel.
There was a collision in the 4th inning with 2 outs and Orion batting. Taylor Larson hit a bloop pop up to 2nd base where Gina Long was charging to make the catch. She would have had it, but courtesy runner Kaila Lange collided with Long, and was called for the 3rd out on runners interference.
In the end, Gina Long finished 2-3 with a run scored. Kaitlyn Winkler was 1-1, and reached base three times, twice on errors. Alex Fell and Katie Bertelsen also had hits. Bertelsen actually only swung the bat once. In her first at-bat, she bunted each time, and had a pinch hitter in her scheduled second plate appearance. In her 6th inning at-bat, she swung at the first pitch, and roped into left field for a single.
Jena Malmen, who entered the game hitting .582 had one of the two Chargers hits. After the game, Pat Repp stopped up and talked for a moment. He invited me to Sully's in Galesburg, but I was already not going to get home until 10:00, and didn't want to delay that any further.
It was another one of those, it's 9:00 p.m. and I havent ate since noon types of days. I was feeling a bit parched, so I stopped at the Knoxville Mobil. I grabbed a Deja Blue, another decent bottled water, along with a bag of my kryptonite, Kitchen Cooked potato chips. I hate potato chips, and never have any junk food in my kitchen, but for some reason, I fall for the Kitchen Cooked.
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