Sports
North Softball Takes Second In State
St. Charles North makes a mark in its first-ever trip to the state tournament, winning Friday in dramatic fashion before losing the Class 4A title game to Moline on Saturday, 9-8.
EAST PEORIA – It was the first time St. Charles North’s softball program had ever reached the state tournament, but the North Stars certainly made their mark.
It took an Annie Korth walkoff homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat New Trier, 2-1, in Friday’s Class 4A state semifinal game.
Then Saturday, the North Stars fell behind 9-3 before pushing Moline to the brink. North wound up falling, 9-8, in the highest scoring state championship game in state history. The second place finish means that St. Charles North is still searching for its first-ever team state championship in any sport.
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“That’s what we were trying to do all season,” North senior pitcher Amanda Ciran said. “We knew the kind of talent that we had on our team, coming through our program. Just to finally get here, especially being my senior year, it made it a big deal. We finally showed that we can compete.”
St. Charles North (32-4) had given up four or more runs in a game all season heading into the state championship game Saturday. However, the North Stars gave up that many runs to Moline without recording an out in the title game, thanks to a grand slam by Brittny Drish.
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But North trailed by four runs early in its supersectional win over DeKalb and rallied for a 12-4 win. In this game, however, Moline (24-7-1) kept adding on against Ciran early. Two-run doubles from Jordan de los Reyes and Jenna Winthurst in the second made it 9-3.
“There weren’t any slumped shoulders,” North coach Tom Poulin said. “Nobody acted like they were defeated. We were really confident that we were going to pull it out.”
North did not waver. A three-run home run from Taylor Russell in the bottom of the second cut the lead to 9-6, and Ciran (24-2) settled down in the pitcher’s circle, not allowing another run the rest of the game.
“All season, I’ve been pushing the outside corner, just because it’s so hard to get to,” Ciran said. “It just seemed like these girls just love the outside corner. In the third inning, we found out that they don’t like that inside pitch so much, so we started to use that pitch more. Luckily it held them for a while. It gave us a chance to come back. That’s all I could ask for.”
An RBI single from Russell followed by an RBI triple from Ashley Seering in the fourth cut the lead to 9-8. North then loaded the bases with one out in the sixth when controversy set in. The second out was recorded on a force out at the plate. Then Korth hit a ball to short that Drish bobbled momentarily.
She got the throw off to first, but it appeared Korth beat it out, which would have scored the tying run and brought Ciran up with the bases loaded. Instead, Korth was called out. The North Stars went down 1-2-3 in the seventh to give the state title to Moline.
“I think it broke all our hearts a little bit,” Ciran said. “Props to them for stopping our momentum, because once we get going, we get going. Tough calls here and there. You can’t let the umpires decide the game for you. We should have pulled it out.”
Poulin guided the North Stars to state in his first season as coach, but will have his hands full next year. Only three girls will remain from this senior-laden group, but they feel they’ve laid the foundation for the future.
“Our kids showed an awful lot of character,” Poulin said. “This is an incredible group and they represent the St. Charles community and the school incredibly well.”
