Waterloo battles past Triad for regional softball crown

TROY, Ill. — The visiting Waterloo High softball team got the battle it expected Friday afternoon. And the Bulldogs also came away with the win.

Squaring off against Mississippi Valley Conference rival Triad in a Class 3A regional championship game at Triad, third-seeded Waterloo came up with a run in the top of the sixth inning and then held off the second-seeded Knights for a 6-5 victory.

With the win, the Bulldogs (25-6) advanced to sectionals, where they'll meet Marion (30-6) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Triad. Freeburg (30-3) and Effingham (23-9) will meet in the other semifinal that day at Triad at 3 p.m.

Tuesday's winners will meet for the sectional title at 4 p.m. May 31 at Triad.

"We knew we had a chance, but we also knew that Triad would be tough,'' Waterloo senior Raelyn Melching said after the win. "As the game went on, we just kept coming up with big hits at key times. We split with them during the season and tied for first in the conference. I felt like we were the favorite and I guess today we proved it. But we knew it wouldn't be easy. Triad pushed us today and we managed to pull it out in the end."

Asked about the future, Melching hesitated.

"The focus was on winning today and doing what we needed to do to get past Triad,'' she said. "This was a big win for us, especially for the seniors. We'll enjoy this tonight and start thinking about who's next tomorrow."

Mia Miller, Waterloo's senior pitcher, expressed similar feelings.

"Were we expected to win? No. But we were hopeful,'' she said. "Against a good team like Waterloo, we knew it could go either way. We wanted it a lot and it feels good to end up on top. I was nervous because every time we'd go up, they'd find a way to come back on us. In games like this, I really just try to focus from pitch to pitch, trying to make sure I'm doing my job as a pitcher. If I try to think about the game as a whole, I tend to get overwhelmed.

"I just tried to focus on keeping us in the game and in the end, my team got me the runs I needed."

With the game tied at 5, Waterloo pushed across what proved to be the winning run in the top of the sixth inning. Leadoff hitter Mallory Thompson got the Bulldogs going with a double to the gap in left center. She moved to third on a Miller groundout and scored on Samantha Juelfs' sacrifice fly to center field.

Miller gave up a two-out walk and a wild pitch in the Triad sixth and retired the Knights in order in the seventh. It was one of just two 1-2-3 innings in the contest for Triad.

"Triad always seems to play us tough. Today was no different,'' Miller said.

Waterloo coach Matt Mason agreed: "That's an outstanding offensive team. They swing the bat well and they never give up. It was neck and neck all the way all the way through. We're proud of the way we handled our bats today, but we know we'll have to play better defense if we expect to keep moving forward."

Waterloo grabbed the lead in the top of the third inning, loading the bases with one-out hits from Miller, Juelfs and Maddie Gummerersheimer. Melching followed with a sacrifice fly to put the Bulldogs on to 1-0.

Alyssa DeWitte tied it with a two-out homer down the left-field line in the Triad third.

Waterloo loaded the bases in the fourth on a single from Aidan Dintelman and a pair of walks. Two runs scored on a diving stop and a throwing error. Triad answered in the bottom of the inning, getting an RBI single from Andie Green. Another run scored after Triad recorded an out on a bunt.

With two outs in the top of the fifth, Melching singled and Dintelman walked. After Grayce Mayer delivered a run-scoring single up the middle, the Bulldogs' Kate Lindhorst followed with a base hit to left to make it 5-3.

But again, Triad answered in the bottom of the inning. Grace Zitta blooped a single to right to lead off and moved up on a one-out bunt. Zitta scored on a throwing error and Chloe Seger followed with a base hit to even the score at 5-5.

The loss was just second over the last 16 games to close out the season for Triad (19-11), which was 5-10 after falling 5-0 at Waterloo on April 8.

"With so many multi-sport athletes joining us at the start of the softball season, the slow start to the season is almost expected for us,'' Triad coach Kris Kleeman said. "It sometimes takes a while to bring it all together, but I've never had a losing season. Our goal at the start of the year is to win 20 games and to challenge for the top spot in conference and regionals. This year, we ended up 19-12, but we also had six rainouts.

"We had a good season, and we came out today and we battled. It's always tough when a season finishes, but this group battled all season."

Waterloo's attack was keyed by two-hit games from Miller, Gummersheimer and Lindhorst. Miller upped her pitching record to 16-4, striking out eight in the complete-game victory. For Triad, Phoebe Feldman had a pair of hits and DeWitte contributed the solo home run.