“Coming into this season, to be honest, I didn’t expect us to get this far,” said St. Anthony coach Makayla Walsh. “But it just goes to show what you can achieve if you work hard and have a high softball IQ. This is an amazing group.”

After knocking off ALAH 4-0 in the morning semifinal, the Lady Bulldogs found themselves one win away from a state title. But they were well aware that the Lady Tigers were a tremendous team that believed they could have won the championship a year ago, as well, if not for COVID.

And when their lead-off batter, Addison Welsh, lined a pitch into the right-centerfield alley and raced into third with a triple, Illini Bluffs was certainly off to a fast start. Four pitches later, Emma Hicks grounded a ball to SAHS second baseman Addie Wernsing. Hicks was thrown out at first, but Welsh scampered home with the first run of the game.

The Lady Tigers made it 2-0 in the third. Welsh, again, started the inning with a base hit. She advanced to third on a pair of ground outs, but Graham delivered a two-out hit, grounding the ball hard between first and second for an RBI.

The Lady Bulldogs were held scoreless through the first four innings and had just one hit, and that was an infield single by Cameron Rios in the third.

But keeping St. Anthony off the scoreboard in the fourth took two outstanding catches by Illini Bluffs centerfielder Zoe Eeten. Hailey Niebrugge led off with a drive that appeared headed to the centerfield fence. But Eeten raced back and made a jumping catch for the out. Lucy Fearday then ripped a pitch into right-center that looked like sure extra bases. But once again, Eeten made a lunging catch to rob Fearday of a hit.

So instead of scoring a run on back-to-back doubles and having the tying run in scoring position, the Lady Bulldogs had two outs and nobody on base.

“Those two catches were game-changers,” Walsh admitted.

After faring well against the hard-throwing Makenzie Brown in the semifinals, Walsh was a little surprised that her hitters didn’t do better against Illini Bluffs pitcher Kierston McCoy.

“After facing 65 to 67 (mph), we just couldn’t get our timing down,” the SAHS coach noted. “We finally started making some adjustments and began hitting the ball a little better.”

The Lady Bulldogs pushed a run across in the fifth and it happened after two outs. Rios reached on an error and Addie Wernsing lined a single into center. The ball then got past the centerfielder and Rios raced all the way from first base to score.

St. Anthony was back on the attack in the sixth.

With one out, Maddie Kibler walked, twin-sister Sydney Kibler lined a base hit up the middle and Stacie Vonderheide drew a walk to load the bases. Maddie Kibler scored when a ground ball off the bat of Grace Karolewicz was booted for an error. That left the bases loaded with just one out, but the next two batters were retired.

Niebrugge had a one-out single in the seventh and went to second on a ground out, but was stranded. In the eighth, Sydney Kibler led off with a base hit, but was erased in a double play.

In the bottom of the eighth, with the top of the batting order coming up, the Lady Tigers put together the game-winning rally.

For the third time in the game, Welsh led off with a base hit. Hicks then hit a ground ball that resulted in a throwing error, leaving runners at second and third with no outs. McCoy was walked intentionally and Graham lined a 1-0 pitch over the shortstop’s head to bring home Welsh and clinch the state title.

“We were right there,” Walsh said. “But we’re not going to hang our heads. We’ll learn from this and move on. We’ve got everybody back next year. The future is bright.”

Fearday pitched another strong game, but for the first time in six postseason starts, she took the loss. She pitched seven innings, allowing seven hits and three runs. She struck out two and walked two.

The Lady Bulldogs finished with five hits. Sydney Kibler had two of those, while Rios, Wernsing and Niebrugge each had one.

The Lady Tigers ended their season with a 17-1 record, while St. Anthony was 21-9. The Lady Bulldogs had never advanced further than a sectional final in softball prior to this season.

“This was a huge year for us,” Walsh said. “We just went eight innings against a great softball team. We’re going to enjoy finishing second in the state, but we’re also going to look forward to the future.”