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Softball: Morrison finishes third at state

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By Christopher Maloney | Saturday, June 14, 2008 |

EAST PEORIA, Ill. — After a state title run in 2007, Morrison’s softball team lost a lot of players to graduation, leaving many doubting they would make it back to state. With the aid of senior pitcher Ashlie Patten, underclassmen’s extra effort and overall team passion, the Fillies not only made it to the state finals but finished better than the 2007 team, which finished fourth.

This year’s squad defeated Piasa Southwestern 3-2 on Saturday to take third place at East Peoria’s Eastside Centre.

“It feels amazing,” Fillies coach Tamela Deter said. “When the season began, I didn’t know if we would make it back to state, but the underclassmen did an amazing job filling in the holes left by our graduates and helped get us here. That we came back to win the third-place game after losing a tough 2-1 (extra-inning) game this morning, shows they had the passion to finish better than last year.”

Morrison was down 2-0 in the top of the fourth against the Birds before senior pitcher Patten drilled her first home run of the year to give her team the drive to come back.

“That home run was amazing,” Patten said. “Their pitcher left the pitch up, and I got all of it. I think that got our team going. It feels great to hit a home run at state.”

Senior Megan Nelson put Morrison ahead to stay in the top of the fifth with a two-run double.

The Birds didn’t make it easy to clinch third place, though. Piasa had two runners on with two out in the bottom of the seventh before Patten struck out her eighth batter to seal the win.

Earlier on Saturday, Morrison fell short of playing for the Class 2A championship, losing 3-2 in eight innings to Stanford Olympia.

After Olympia scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth, aided by two Morrison errors, the Fillies had runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the frame. Two groundouts and a strikeout later, and Morrison found itself playing for third. Patten had 12 strikeouts in the loss.

“It felt great to make it back to state for my senior year and finish better than last year,” Patten said. “A lot of people didn’t think we would make it back here, which makes this even more special.”