It's been a super spring for the Rosary athletic program.
The track team won a sectional title and its soccer squad won a regional crown.
Not as much was expected from the softball team, however.
Seeded third in the four-team Class 3A Regional the Royals hosted last week, coach Tara Peters' squad entered the postseason at 11-17 but knocked off No. 2 seed Yorkville and No. 1 Sandwich to advance to the Rochelle Sectional.
It was the first time since 1994 and only the third time in program history the softball team had won a regional crown.
"I was pitching at West (Aurora) then," Peters said. "It's pretty nice. Last year we won our conference but didn't get past the first game (at regional)."
Members of the team were happy to do their part.
"All three spring sports won titles, so that was cool," said senior right fielder Courtney Classen, who leads the team with a .410 batting average. "At the beginning of the season it was rough. We had a lot of younger players (six sophomores see a lot of action). It may have taken them awhile to get used to varsity, but it also took awhile for us to start playing well together. I think we're at our peak right now."
They will need to be. The Royals meet Sterling (18-12) at 4 p.m. Thursday in a sectional semifinal, with the winner advancing to Saturday's title game against the winner of today's semifinal pitting Burlington Central against Sycamore.
Classen credits a sit-down session called by Peters with helping change the team's fortunes. The Royals started the season 2-7, but they've won five of their last seven.
"She sat down and talked with us, about the middle of the conference season," Classen said. "We talked about what we wanted to do as a team. We've done a lot better since then.
"We had to raise our defense and we've been playing strong defense. We're getting less errors each game and we're doing a better job on offense, too. If someone gets on (base), we're doing a better job of moving her over or driving in the run."
Classen, who will play at Elmhurst College beginning this fall, also leads the team with 23 RBIs. Senior catcher Andrea DeKing is hitting .372 with 11 doubles and a pair of triples while sophomore shortstop Brenda Rocha is batting .356 and has 29 stolen bases.
"I don't want to say I'm surprised (to win a regional), but we had such a rough start," Peters said. "I think we became tougher because of that. We had, basically, two returning players in the infield. Early in the year we were always committing two or three errors a game, but it always seemed like they came in the same inning."
Senior Jessica Fortier (7-10, 2.76 ERA) will likely get the start for the Royals on Thursday, though Peters has used three other pitchers. Sophomore Tara Pfeiffer likely would be second in line.
DeKing and Fortier will both continue their careers on the diamond at College of DuPage.
Sterling, too, was the surprise team of its regional. The Golden Warriors were seeded fourth at Geneseo.
After losing 13 one-run games in the regular season, Sterling won a 2-1 decision over No. 1 seed Alleman in nine innings. The Golden Warriors Sterling then beat No. 2 seed Geneseo 4-1.
Key players in the regional triumph for Sterling were pitcher Jaime Rehmert (13-12) and Angie Minnick. Against Alleman, Rehmert started the winning rally with a double and her pinch-runner was driven in by Minnick.
In the title game, both Rehmert and Minnick hit home runs.
Defense, apparently, was an issue for Sterling this season, too. After beating Alleman, coach Rick Henderson told the Sterling Daily Gazette: "We've played like that all season long. We'd make great plays the whole game, then a play would end up costing us.
"(Today) It was like, 'We've been here, but we kept preaching (that) we're going to come through when it's important.' Doggone it if we didn't do that today." Softball: Class 3A Rochelle Sectional
Close
Community Login
You've successfully logged in to the Sun-Times Media Community, click the close button to return to browsing.
Facebook App
Font Size
Email
Bookmark
Black Text
Cell Phone Alerts