Williamsville blank Explorers to claim sectional championship

GILLESPIE - The only time the Marquette Catholic Explorers girls softball team lost a game in the regular season was a 7-0 loss to Pickneyville over a month ago.

Saturday, it just wasn't Marquette's day offensively in the IHSA Class 2A Gillespie Sectional Finals.

The Williamsville Bullets got a run in the first inning and that was all senior pitcher, Payton Long needed in the circle for the Bullets.

Williamsville 2-0 defeated Marquette in the Class 2A Gillespie Sectional Finals on Saturday afternoon. They improve to 32-5 and meet St. Joseph-Ogden on Monday at 11 a.m. in the Athens Super-Sectional.

The Explorers 18-game winning streak and season come to an end at 36-2.

“Their pitcher threw hard and threw up. We were swinging at bad pitches and letting good pitches go. Same way with Pinckneyville, our other loss this year,” Wiedman said.

Long was razor-sharp.

Along with the complete game shutout she struck out 11 batters while walking four, and allowed two hits.

“A lot of credit to their pitcher. She shut us down. We had a few opportunities. I felt like going back as a coach, I would have made a couple of different decisions, but part of that was on me not scoring. They’ve got good pitching, a good, solid ballclub. We didn’t have our best day hitting and this is what happens.”

“I feel like we tried our best. We didn’t want to lose, but we fought until the end,” Gracie Morris said. “Today just felt different. It was a good feeling, but it was an uneasy feeling,”

The Bullets got three singles in the first inning, but the vital one was an RBI blooper into center field by Kaileigh Moser scoring Emma Walbert.

In her last ever high school softball game, Meghan Schorman, a University of Pittsburgh signee struck out ten batters and walked none while allowing seven hits and two runs (one earned).

“I did a good job with them,” Schorman said on her performance. “It stinks letting them have a run in the first inning, but you can’t do anything about it, and you have to come back and score, and we couldn’t do that today.”

“We needed to hit. Going up against anybody in the state [Meghan’s] going to shut them down by two runs or less, which she did today. We gotta give her some offensive support.”

In the bottom half of the inning, Morris hit a two-out double and tried to stretch it into a triple, but was called out to end the inning.

By the time the top of the fifth started, a rain delay had occurred, and the play was paused for a little over an hour. After the game resumed, Tess Eberlin drew a walk and two batters later, Abigail Porter lined a double into left to put runners on second and third with one out. However, Long would get out the jam by striking out Emma Nicholson and Jada Johnson.

That was a massive opportunity for Marquette out the door, and Williamsville made them pay as they added one more insurance run on an RBI single by Rylie Yard.

The Explorers would get another decent opportunity in the bottom half with a runner on base and Schorman at the plate. She hit a high fly ball to left center, but the ball died down a couple of yards from the fence and Walbert made the catch.

“I hate to see these kids careers end. They put so much effort into their four seasons. I think they’ve grown a lot of softball skill wise. I love these kids. They had a fantastic four years.” Wiedman said.

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