Softball: King’s blast gives Carmel sectional semifinal win over Grayslake North
After rain forced the postponement of Wednesday's Class 3A Grayslake Central sectional semifinal between second seed Carmel and No. 3 Grayslake North, the two teams went back to Central Thursday to find out who would earn the right to face top-seed Antioch in Saturday's final.
This game would be determined in large part due to which of the two squads could bounce back after each allowed a two-run fielding miscue leaving the game deadlocked after 5 1/2 innings of play.
It was there that Carmel catcher Grace King stepped to the plate in the bottom of the sixth to face Knights hurler Riley O'Brien with center fielder Kate Buckingham on first.
"She kind of was throwing the same combinations outside and I knew that she would come down low on the second pitch, so I was ready to take a hack at it and I ended up connecting at the barrel,“ King said.
Thanks to King's successful connection that landed over the fence in right-center field bringing both her and Buckingham in, the Corsairs (20-9) would get the lead for keeps. They held on after giving up a run in the bottom half to frame to earn a 4-3 sectional semifinal win.
Antioch (23-13) defeated No. 5 Chicago Resurrection (16-13) 5-4 in Tuesday's semifinal.
"This group is truly special. From day one they've come ready to work," Carmel coach Nicole Parney said.
"Every single day at practice putting in the work and making the small plays. They have a lot of energy. Every inning. Every pitch. We always focus on one pitch at a time and they've truly done that. We're super-proud of them."
The scoring began when North (17-12) benefited from an error off of a grounder hit by right fielder Jasleen Delgado that would bring in both O'Brien's courtesy runner Maggie Lux and left fielder Raygen Moore for a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.
That advantage held for the Knights until the bottom of the fifth when the Corsairs would even things up on one of the more bizarre errors -- a miss-exchange between catcher and pitcher that went awry allowing both King and second baseman Kathryn Konen to score.
King credited her team's ability to score both runs on simply paying attention to the little things.
"As soon as I saw it tip off (the pitcher's glove) we went and Kaitlyn was right behind me ready to come in," King said.
The Knights made one more attempt to come back in the bottom of the seventh as freshman first baseman Kendall Joy singled in fellow freshman third baseman Brena Dalton to make it 4-3 before starting pitcher Bella Cameron got first-year designated player Grace Hoker to pop up to Konen to end the contest and with it North's most successful postseason since 2021.
"Overall, I'm really proud of how these girls worked," Knights coach Amanda Rodriguez said.
"We only have 3 seniors (Lauren Gaeding, Lux, and Dakota McLester). We're s really young team and our future is bright "