NORMAL – Normal Community West High School’s second seeded Softball team’s winning ways continued in their Class 3A regional final against East Peoria Friday as the Wildcats blanked the Raiders, 1-0 May 26 at Maxwell Park. The win sent Head Coach April Schermann’s team forward to a sectional semifinal to take on host school Metamora Tuesday. The other Tuesday semifinal would be between Washington Community High School and Geneseo High School.

Back-to-back doubles were what it took for Normal West (28-9) to get their lone run across the plate. With no score in the bottom of the 3rd inning, game action for Normal West didn’t start well, though, as leadoff batter Tamlyn Cramer and designated player Eden Pressburger went down in order to start the Wildcats’ half of the inning. Shortstop Emily Kobel followed with a double and was followed by catcher Emily McCandless who smacked a double into the outfield allowing Kobel to cross home plate for the Wildcats’ lone run.

Wildcats pitcher Rileigh Morlock got credit for the win upping her record on the season to 17-3. East Peoria pitcher

“Emily Kobel has great speed on the bases, so we knew from a base hit on, we knew she was going to score,” Schermann explained. “We just needed Emily McCandless to come up with that timely hit and that’s exactly what she did.”

“I’ve gotten hits that have allowed Emily to score a couple times this year,” McCandless said, adding, “I know that wherever I’m going to hit it, she’s automatically going to score. I really have a lot of confidence in her because of that.”

When Normal West gets to Metamora, Schermann said, the Wildcats will be the visiting team, but explained, “We bring motivational signs for our dugout so that whatever dugout we are in our dugout. We make that field our field.” Schermann explained the signs are “general reminders” for Normal West players “that help us play our best.”

Schermann said her team doesn’t concentrate on “who we play but how we play.”

Morelock explained she relies on team catcher Sophia Revallo to be able to gauge where batters stand in the batter’s box. Because of that, Menzione said, “I trust her very much to call pitches that we can either strike them out looking or swinging. But if we can’t that done, I have a bunch of confidence in this team because I know what they can field, I know what they can do.”

“It was a great game and both pitchers pitched phoenominally,” East Peoria Head Coach Denee Menzione said afterward. “We gave up two hits and made three. Normal West is a great coached team. It’s always fun playing them.”

NORMAL – Normal Community West High School’s second seeded Softball team’s opening game in Class 3A against Bloomington Tuesday got the Wildcats’ playoff chances off to a positive start Tuesday with the Wildcats blanking the Big 12 Conference rival Purple Raiders, 10-0 after five innings, earning a win which would have them hosting a regional final contest against East Peoria High School Friday afternoon beginning with a 4:30p.m. first pitch.

East Peoria, seeded third, advanced, as well, Tuesday, at home shutting out 7th seeded Morton,10-0, Tuesday.

Normal West scoring began in the second inning with one out and a single into right field by winning pitcher Rileigh Morlock, who also got the win for the Wildcats. The next batter, second baseman Bralen Sauder, also singled allowing Morelock to score West’s first run. Base hits by first baseman Bralen Sauder, right fielder Eden Pressburger and shortstop Emily Kobel helped score Morelock and Sauder before a third out, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

The top half of the third inning for Bloomington (9-13 overall, 6-4 in Big 12 Conference) was brief as BHS’ next batters – as Abigail Witt struck out, Kennedy Lovell hit a fly ball to left field, and Ava Kracher struck out – ending the Purple Raiders’ inning.

In the bottom of the third inning and one out, Normal West (27-9 overall, 11-0 Big 12 Conference) became busy as third baseman Emily Bransan singled, first baseman Natalie Nenne, Morelock, shortstop Bralen Sauder either hit singles or doubles giving the Wildcats 4 runs topped off by a base hit by hit from Pressburger allowing Normal West to score in the bottom of the third inning, upping the Wildcats’ lead, 6-0.

Normal West scored its last run of the game in its half of the fifth inning with Sauder and Pressberger getting hits and scoring the Wildcats’ 9th and 10th runs before BHS was able to obtain their third out of the inning. As a result of scoring 10 runs after five innings, under Illinois High School Association rules, the game was declared over by game officials.

Morelock earned her 16th win the win for Normal West while freshman pitcher Reilly Vetter sustained the loss for BHS (9-13 overall, 6-4 Big 12).

“I wouldn’t say any win is really easy, but I’d say we trusted our preparation and trusted our process, and played it one pitch at a time, and we weren’t trying to swing big for the fence,” Normal West Head Coach April Schermann explained. “We were just trying to get back-to-back base hits. I also think my players did a good job of taking advantage of base running, getting extra bases whenever we could.

BHS Head Coach Molly Doolin explained because her team is mainly younger players sometimes causes them “to get rattled easily” when they fall behind in games. Doolin said she believes that as they grow in the game, they will be less unnerved when they fall behind in games. She added her team has three juniors and the rest of their 15 player roster are underclassmen with no seniors.

Doolin did credit her team with how they have played this season against teams like East Peoria. Their record includes a 20-3 win over Peoria High April 13 and a 22-0 shutout over Peoria Manual April 24.

Students from local and McLean County schools exhibited their best efforts Saturday as they competed in numerous events at IHSA 1A Girls State Track & Field Championships on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston during a three-day event which ran from May 18-20. One of the efforts demonstrated included an athlete from Tri-Valley setting a personal best record in the Long Jump.

BHS’ Brady Finishes 4th In 1600 Meter Run: In the 1600 meter run, Nora Brady from Bloomington High School finished fourth with a time of 5:18.24. Brady also finished fourth in the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:27.12. Caroline Wetterstein from El Paso Gridley High School finished 18th in the 1600 meter event with a time of 5:32.83. Her teammate, Nellie Mellick, came in 21st in the same event with a time of 5:34.96. Lily Monigold finished the 3200 meter race in 23rd place with a time of 12:15.55.

EPG Finishes 4th In 4×800 Meter Relay: Piper Zimmerman, Sophie Hinthorne, Mellick, and Wetterstein collaborated for the Titans’ most successful relay combination of the day, as they placed fourth in the 4×800 Meter Relay event with a time of 9:50.00. This quartet finished 10th out of 36 teams to get to this race’s finals.

Cogdal Finished 12th In 100 Meter Prelims: While El Paso Gridley’s Keyli Cogdal didn’t qualify to compete in the 100 meter Hurdles event, she did place 12th in the event’s prelims with a time of 16.34 seconds.

EPG Finishes 11th In 4×100 Meter Prelims: EPG’s 4×100 meter relay team of Abriel Smith, Reese Deckard, Aubrey Phillips, and Cogdal were outpaced by other teams, causing the Titans to finish 11th out of 36 teams in the preliminaries.

EPG Finishes Last In 4×200 Meter Relay: Kiera Staller joined Smith, Deckard, and Phillips to compete in the 4×200 Meter Relay and found competition from nine other schools formattable as Rockford Christian, Seneca, and Monmouth finished in the top three spots out of the nine teams which competed and left the Titans in the dust to finish in last place.

BHS, EPG Fall To Sidelines Compete In 4×400 Meter Relay: No local teams managed to qualify to compete in the 4×400 Meter Relay. EPG came in 25th in the preliminaries for the event. BHS came in 28th out of a field of 35 other schools which failed to qualify.

Tri-Valley’s Klessig Finishes 20th In Discus: Tri-Valley’s Grace Klessig faced still competition in her turn during the discus throw at this event. She did manage to hurl the discus for a best shot of 29.94 meters. That distance had her finishing in 20th place out of 29 competitors.

Tri-Valley’s Nelson Finishes 6th In Long Jump: Laney Nelson from Downs Tri-Valley finished 6th in the Long Jump competition with a jump of 5.12 meters. Nelson also finished second in the triple jump with a mark of 11.18 meters, establishing a personal best, and coming in behind first place finisher Kelsey Hutchins of Sherrard’s mark of 11.41 meters. Hutchins’ Tri-Valley teammate, Rylee Bramlee, finished in 9th place with a jump of 10.46 meters.

Tri-Valley’s Nelson Finishes 2nd In Triple Jump: Nelson also achieved setting a personal record during her effort performing the triple jump as she accomplished a jump of 11.18 inches. That jump placed her in 2nd place behind first place finisher Kelsey Hutchins of Sherrard whose jump was for 11.41 inches.

EPG’s Phillips Finishes 2nd In High Jump, Last In Women’s 200 Meters: From all indications, El Paso Gridley High’s Phillips placed second in the high jump competition, finishing with a leap of 1.67 meters, achieving a personal best in the event as a result. She also gave her all in the Women’s 200 Meter race, but came in last out of nine runners registering a time of 26.76 seconds. Bloomington Central Catholic’s Makayla Albrecht found herself in a tie with six other competitors, all of whom jumped 1.50 meters.

NORMAL – A six-run 7th inning from visiting Bloomington High School spoiled a potential victory for Normal Community High School Tuesday afternoon closing out the Big 12 Conference baseball matchup at Ironmen Field Tuesday, as the Purple Raiders’ comeback led to their 8-7 win over NCHS.

A walk by NCHS starting pitcher Troy McLeese put BHS center fielder Adison Worthman on base to start the game, and a base hit by catcher Miguel Espindola gave BHS a fast 1-0 lead. A walk in the first inning to NCHS leadoff man Riley Hendren was quickly followed by Hendren getting home giving the Ironmen a quick 2-1 lead.

Ironmen pitching held BHS at bay while NCHS continued increasing their score with left fielder Kyle Beaty and scoring and Dexter Niekamp scoring and increasing the Ironmen lead in the 2nd inning. NCHS scored three more in the 3rd inning featuring singles and scores from Hendren, shortstop Chase Wiese, and left fielder Kyle Beaty helping jolt NCHS’ score to 7-1 in the bottom of the 3rd inning.

Down 7-1 to the Ironmen for most of the game, BHS (19-10 overall, 9-4 in Big 12 Conference) saw their rally start with a double from Zach Spindle. His double was duplicated by the next batters who followed – left fielder Trey Thompson, shortstop John Shuey, right fielder Zach Spidle, and first baseman Parker Gilmore, and 2nd baseman Noah Reed. Shuey gets credit for bringing home a walk with bases loaded which aided in the Ironmen’s scoring effort.

The loss dropped Normal Community’s record on the season to 20-8 overall which included going 10-2 in Big 12 Conference.

Jacob O’Day claimed the win for the Ironmen and upped his record to 6-2 on the season.

“I think Bloomington is a good hitting team, and I thought Troy McLeese and Parker Michaels and Jacob O’Day were good releievers who made some really good pitches the Bloomington guys put some really good swings on them,” explained NCHS Head Coach Ryan Short. In the seventh inning, as Bloomington was attempting a comeback, he explained he thought his team “had a little stretch of bad luck but did a good job of staying composed.”

He said he had a senior pitcher when the game started and a senior pitcher when the final out was made, so he added he believed his pitchers did a good job handling BHS’ sudden rush.

BHS Head Coach Steve Clapp credited NCHS starting pitcher Troy McLeese “did a good job early in the game and throughout the game, keeping us off balance, throwing 2 or 3 pitches for strikes. I was pleased with our kids and they had no quit in them. Scoring six runs in the top of the 7th inning is a compliment to our kids. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish it out.” Clapp said his team should have tried to keep NCHS from getting more runs when his team was only down by two, 3-1, in the early innings. He said when the Ironmen jumped to a 7-1, that “became a tough mountain to climb” for his team.

He complimented his team for tying the game at 7-all in the late innings, but in the end, he said, “we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

NORMAL – When fans attended University High baseball team’s showdown against in-town opponent Normal Community West High School May 5, some of them probably expected the contest to be primarily defensive. Those in attendance at Normal West’s home field were neither wrong nor disappointed by the action they saw from both sides.

The game between the Wildcats and the Pioneers was a primarily defensive contest for 5 1/25 innings. Wildcats shortstop Blake Crancer was hit by a pitch from U-High’s eventual losing pitcher Eli Kieser, his team toting a 13-14 record afterward. Crancer also managed stealing second base while the next batter, pitcher Jesse Courtney was at bat. Courtney doubled allowing Crancer to score the Wildcats’ only run. Normal West’s win helped to give them a 10-12 record after this game.

In addition to scoring the only run, Courtney struck out 9 U-High batters.

“Even though it was a 1-0 game, there was a lot of stuff that went on during that game that kept that game at 1-0,” explained Normal West Head Coach Chris Hawkins afterward. His team’s record after this game was Early on, he explained, his team defensively faced U-High having runners at first and third and managed to keep the runner at first from stealing second.

“I thought our defense played really well behind Jesse,” Hawkins said in giving praise to his winning pitcher, Courtney. About Courtney, Hawkins added, “He just put us on his back and pitched a heck of a game.“

“I’m going to be a Business major, so I’m really excited to get there,” Courtney said, explaining his college plans.

Courtney, son of Ben and Nayeli Courtney, admitted he works on his pitching, or the “mechanics” of the game, as he explained it, “so that when I get on the mound, it feels effortless. I try not to think too much because I know I put in the work, so I’m ready to go out there and not have to do anything extra when I’m pitching.” He said his teammates demonstrated “some fantastic defense behind me.”

Hawkins added hometown fans will be able to continue to see the senior once he leaves Normal West as he will be playing baseball for Illinois State University.

“We have a lot of respect for U-High and their baseball program,” Hawkins added. “So anytime these two teams match up, you throw out the records and you just watch it and enjoy it.”

“I thought it was a well-pitched game by both sides,” University High Head Baseball Coach Steve Paxson. Paxson credited both pitchers for their performances. “Normal West just happened to bunch their hits together in one inning and that was the game.”