Wheaton, Ill. -- Wheaton Academy traveled all of five miles Saturday morning to face Wheaton St. Francis (24-2) in an IHSA 3A regional title game and dropped a 15-0 decision to the Spartans. Junior Caroline Caesar blew the game open with a grand slam in the bottom of the first and never looked back. WA threatened in the top of the first against senior Shelby Winkelman as the Warriors loaded the bases but could not score.
"There's a reason St. Francis is 24-2," said WA head coach
Todd Starowitz. "We knew we had to score first to try to put some pressure on them and Leah (Kodat) opens the game with a screamer to third base that they snag. We then have runners on first and second with one out and Haleigh (Van Wagner) hits one down the left field line that falls foul by about a foot, which would have plated a run. She still had a great at-bat and walked to load the bases. I even thought that the umpire was squeezing Winkelman a bit and she seemed more rattled than I've ever seen her before but she threw a great change up to get out of the bases loaded jam and she really settled in after that. She's very good and then they can bring in Clark and lose very little, if anything."
In the bottom of the first, senior rightfielder Rebecca Imbrogno reached on an error and advanced to second on the play and scored on a single by Kristina Sherwin. Winkelman followed with a single to advance Imbrogno. With runners on second and third, WA intentionally walked SIU commit Carlee Jo Clark and paid for the decision when junior Caroline Caesar hit a grand slam deep over the right centerfield fence to push the St. Francis lead to 5-0.
"Winkelman, Clark, and Caesar are just really difficult to navigate around in the middle of the lineup and (leadoff hitter) Rebecca Imbrogno is kind of the straw that stirs the drink," said Starowitz. "I felt we had to find a way to keep her off the bases and then she leads off the game reaching on an error and then they take a quick 1-0 lead. They had runners at second and third with nobody out and it's kind of pick your poison. I thought we'd be better off loading the bases so we'd have a force at home and to get one spot closer to the bottom of the lineup. I chose to walk (SIU commit Carlee Jo) Clark and Caesar hit a grand slam and then you're just holding on for dear life. Believe me, we knew how good Caesar is. If it was Caesar hitting ahead of Clark in the lineup we would have walked Caesar. We intentionally walked Caesar in the second inning and got their next hitter to line into a double play to end the inning but the game was pretty much over after the first."
Wheaton Academy only mustered one hit on the afternoon, a Kodat single in the top of the third.
"It's a shame we played almost the entire season without Leah because of her foot injury," said Starowitz. "We were a lot better team with her."
Wheaton Academy wishes to thank seniors
Cassie Bonga (Messiah),
Krysta Deutsch (Wheaton College),
Madison Ebeling (will play collegiately at Loyola),
Courtney Kinnane (Furman University),
Julia Palmer (Furman University), and
Haleigh Van Wagner (will play collegiately at Taylor University)Â for their contributions to the Wheaton Academy softball program.
"It's a special senior group, one that won a league title just last year and a group who will be very hard to replace," said Starowitz. "They've had to endure four different head coaches in four years. To have six seniors on any team in today's society is pretty rare because a lot of girls just start to drift away. To have six with a different coach every year is really a credit to all of them. This has been a fun team to coach and I'm proud of everyone on our roster."
