NORMAL – Normal Community West High remained undefeated Saturday, May 29 following their Illinois High School Association Class 4A regional championship win over Minooka at Normal Community High Saturday.

The Wildcats beat Minooka, 1-0, advancing to Sectional play this week. Date and location of that game had not been determined as of Saturday’s game.

All the scoring took place in the bottom of the seventh inning, breaking a scoreless tie. West pitcher Lauren Cumbess led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, and was substituted for on the bases by Courtney Harp.

Erin Huddleston followed Cumbess to the plate and bunted the ball back to Minooka pitcher Kristi Lenz for the force-out. While Huddleston was being tagged, Harp motored around second and beat a fast throw into third, with one out.

Rebecca Rupard followed for West with a smash hit into shallow left field, allowing Harp to score what turned out to be the only run needed for a victory.

“I saw that third base was open, and we have always worked (on going from first to third) a lot in practice, so I saw the opportunity and did it,” Harp said.

Harp said West (33-0) usually tries to “utilize my speed when third base is open, especially since no one was covering it, especially on a bunt.”

Normal West has a board in their dugout that they use to mark off the number of games remaining until they get to a championship. With Saturday’s victory, they were able to say they have just five games to go to achieve their championship goal.

Whereas the outcome looked easy, West’s getting the end result proved challenging against Minooka pitcher Lenz. Lenz struck out six Wildcats batters – two of those looking — in seven innings’ work.

“Lenz did her job,” West head coach April Schermann said of the opposing pitcher. “It took us a little while to get on her, but we did it toward the end of the game.”

Regarding Harp’s running the bases en route to scoring the Wildcats’ lone run, Schermann said, “With someone who has speed like Harp, she knows her speed and she knows what bases she can take. So if she’s running hard to second and she sees third is open, that’s all instinct. That’s all Courtney Harp taking that base.”

Schermann said now that her team is advancing to Sectionals, “everything matters. Aggressive base-running, executing the sacrifice bunt, (and) getting the clutch hits like we did today.”

“Our goal was to come in and get as many hits as we could,” said Minooka head coach Amy Saelens, as she explained the strategy her team had going into the contest. “We kept West off the bases pretty much the whole game. Lenz and catcher Andrea Carlson did exactly what they needed to do. We played great defense, doing exactly what we needed to do. I’m not looking back (with) any regrets.

“It was a great game with timely hitting,” Saelens said. Minooka finishes the season with a record of 26-10.

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