Hickory Creek Tigers win State Softball Championship for third year in a row

The 2017 Hickory Creek Middle School Tigers are the State Champions once again after beating Edwardsville Lincoln 9-6 in the championship softball game at the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) State Finals on Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23 in Normal, Illinois.

The weekend started off well, as the Hickory Creek Tigers took their first game on Friday 3-0 vs. Williamsville. Jamie Sierocki had a big two run single while Katie Stewart scored two key runs. Three was enough for pitcher Danielle Stewart who was dominant, throwing a shutout while striking out eleven.

On Saturday, the Tigers started the semi-finals off with a bang vs. Germantown Hills. Chloe Geijer and Danielle Stewart hit back-to-back homers in the first inning giving the Tigers a quick 2-0 lead. It was the third time this year they have accomplished that amazing feat. Katie Stewart later drove in an insurance run, which once again was enough for Danielle. Stewart battled some tough bats and blazing heat that afternoon, but only allowed one run to cross the plate. The Tigers won 3-1.

After a long break, the Tigers were ready to go for the championship game. Edwardsville Lincoln entered the contest at 24-1 and was looking strong coming into the game. Once again the Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a two-run single by Maddie Pomykalski. The lead wasn’t that safe, however, as Edwardsville took advantage of a few errors and strung some hits together to score four runs, giving them a two-run lead. The Tigers clawed back in the fourth with Pomykalski singling home Geijer and then Kayla Crabtree with a clutch RBI single scoring Stewart. Later that inning, Sierocki brought home Pomykalski with the go-ahead run. In the 4^th inning, Katie Stewart joined the home run party by hitting a solo shot to left field to give the girls a 6-4 lead. But that lead didn’t last long, as Edwardsville scored two after two outs in the bottom of the inning. Tied 6-6, the Tigers didn’t get flustered. In the bottom of the 5^th, the girls had a spark when Katie Stewart pounced on a pop-up bunt attempt and doubled the player off of first to end the inning. This seemed to get the bats fired up. In the 6^th, Katie led things off again with a single. She later scored on Danielle’s single. Geijer and Stewart both scored on groundouts by Pomykalski and Crabtree, giving the Tigers a 9-6 lead. Danielle and the defense did the rest as a groundout to Thormeyer at second ended it and the Tigers stormed the field as State Champions for the third year in a row. Katie and Danielle Stewart each had three hits, Geijer scored two runs and Pomykalski came up big with four RBI’s to lead the Tigers’ offensive attack.

Danielle Stewart took the ball and threw every pitch for the Tigers during the finals. Her stat line was 21IP, 4ER, 1BB, 29K’s. All of the girls had a huge impact on the season and the finals.

The Tigers finished the season undefeated at 22-0 and it is the second year in a row they went undefeated, going 43-0 in that period. This the third year in a row the Hickory Creek Tigers Team has won the state title winning in 2015-2017. This year Maddie Pomykalski, Chloe Geijer, Danielle Stewart and Katie Stewart won their second championship as part of the Tigers.

The rest of this championship roster includes Laurelei Thormeyer, Allison McMahon, Kate DeCero, Sydney Meekma, Emme Lombardo, Kayla Crabtree, Abby O’Hagan, Jamie Sierocki, Jocelynn Drechsel and Addison Cumbee. Coaches are Mitch Stein and Erin Nemeth.