PR captures 1st regional crown

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McHENRY – Prairie Ridge’s Lexi Wachman provided the offensive spark, Lauren Seegers provided three RBIs, and Johanna Turner provided the shutdown pitching performance.

The result was a 4-0 victory for the top-seeded Wolves against third-seeded Crystal Lake South on Friday. The win gave Prairie Ridge the IHSA Class 4A McHenry Regional championship, the school’s first softball regional title.

“That’s the way our season’s been all year,” Wolves coach Mike Buck said. “Somebody steps up and makes [a play], and it’s just not one or two people, it’s the whole lineup.”

The Wolves will face the winner of today’s Streamwood Regional final between South Elgin and Larkin on Wednesday in the Woodstock Sectional at Bates Park.

The Wolves (31-6) jumped on South pitcher Emily Mahoney (16-9) in the first inning. Wachman, Prairie Ridge’s leadoff hitter, singled, took second on a sacrifice and moved to third on Erika Trojan’s base hit. Seegers scored Wachman on a fielder’s choice grounder, and Trojan scored on Erin Smith’s single.

“Once I get on, I have a lot of good people to back me up,” Wachman, who scored twice, said. “... We always say that if [I] get on, they can get me around 95 percent of the time.”

Wachman’s math wasn’t far off Friday. She reached again with one out in the fifth and scored along with Patras on a single by Seegers, making it 4-0.

The run support was plenty for Turner, who worked ahead in the count most of the game and was aided by some good defensive play, including from center fielder Danielle Samuels, who caught a couple of hard-hit balls.

The best scoring chance for the Gators (22-10) came in the sixth, when they had their only consecutive hits.

Leadoff hitter Liz Adams singled to start the inning, and tried to go from first to third on a base hit by Sammie Hardie.

The tag on Adams looked high, but she was called out. Turner then settled down and retired the next two batters to end the inning.

“I thought [Adams] slid under it,” South coach Scott Busam said. “It wasn’t the deciding factor in the game, it was a baserunning mistake, and they took advantage of it and that’s that.”

It was a tough loss for South, which had entered the season with high hopes.

“The girls felt like they could win this game,” Busam said. “... But [the Wolves] are hot, and everyone knows [that] the hot teams in the postseason, they win, and Turner’s hot and their batting order is hitting.”

As the Wolves crowded together to celebrate after the game, Turner was at the center of the crowd, championship plaque in hand.

She was confident heading into the sectional round.

“I think we’ll do it,” Turner said. “I think we’ll be good.”