The St. Anthony Lady Bulldogs are one of the top softball teams in the state and they continue to prove that.

Over the weekend, they won four straight games to capture the Rantoul Invitational.

SAHS started things off with a 13-0 shutout over Villa Grove on Friday. Lucy Fearday pitched a three-hit shutout. She struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.

St. Anthony banged out 12 hits and used an eight-run fifth to break the game wide open. Hailey Niebrugge and Abbi Hatton both had two hits and three RBI, while Fearday also collected two hits and drove in a pair.

On Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs beat Grant Community 10-2; Bradley Bourbonnais 5-2; and Pekin 15-0 to capture the invitational championship.

A six-run third carried St. Anthony against Grant Community. They combined six hits and an error, and got a two-run double by Addie Wernsing.

Cameron Rios, Niebrugge and Ava Feber each had two hits in the 11-hit attack. One of the hits by Rios was an inside-the-park home run. Hatton and Wernsing both drove home two.

Sydney Kibler got the win, allowing four hits and two runs. She struck out eight and walked four.

The Lady Bulldogs toughest game was against Bradley Bourbonnais. They fell behind 2-0, but scored single runs in the third and fourth and then tallied three times in the fifth. Rios had another inside-the-park homer in the third.

In the deciding fifth, Wernsing had a one-out triple and then scored on an error. Later in the inning, Maddie Kibler had an RBI double and Sydney Kibler followed with a run-scoring single.

Fearday was the winning pitcher.

In the final game against Pekin, the Lady Bulldogs took control early, scoring six runs in the first inning. Fearday had an RBI triple, Maddie Kibler drove home a run with a base hit and Hatton delivered a two-run double in that opening inning.

St. Anthony added two runs in the second and then wrapped up the scoring with a seven-run third. Maddie Kibler blasted a two-run homer in that seventh. Fearday won her third game of the invitational.

The Lady Bulldogs improved to 7-1 on the season. They will play today (Monday) at Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City.