Wolves score in 8th to secure win

The Prairie Ridge softball team holds up its IHSA Class 4A Woodstock Sectional championship plaque Saturday as it celebrates its 3-2 victory against Hononegah. (Danielle Guerra – dguerra@nwherald.com)

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WOODSTOCK – The atmos-phere around Prairie Ridge’s softball players and coach was electric, a product of the noise created by their boisterous fans, but the Wolves were in their own quiet zones Saturday morning.

From the dugout, pitcher Johanna Turner watched each move Hononegah made in the top of the eighth inning of the IHSA Class 4A Woodstock Sectional final. Left fielder Anna Patras stood on third base with one out, representing the lead run. And coach Mike Buck wrestled emotions that ranged from delight to sheer anxiety.

But after Lauren Seegers’ grounder drove in Patras for the go-ahead run, and Turner went three up, three down in the bottom of the eighth to secure a 3-2 win against the Indians (28-10), the Wolves’ silence turned into pandemonium.

By winning the sectional, the Wolves (33-6) achieved the fifth of their six goals this season and earned a spot in the Barrington Supersectional at 7 p.m. Monday against Fremd, leaving one game between themselves and goal No. 6: a berth in the state semifinals next weekend in East Peoria.

“I am elated,” Buck said as he watched his players pose for photos with the sectional plaque, their third piece of hardware this season. “These girls have worked incredibly hard for this, and I’m so pleased to see them win.

“Hononegah [is] an outstanding team. I thought we were very evenly matched, and it was nice that the game was error-free. We won on our own merit, and that’s always a good feeling.”

Prairie Ridge trailed the Indians, 1-0, through six innings. Turner allowed a leadoff triple in the first to Erica Carrington, who scored with one out on Nicki Ervin’s single, but Turner struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Things did not get easier for the junior pitcher, either. Turner took a line drive to her left shin off Carrington’s bat in the bottom of the third, but shook it off. She gave up a leadoff home run to Shauna Heller in the bottom of the sixth that tied the score at 2, but Turner remained unshaken.

Patras, who scored two of the Wolves’ runs and doubled twice, wanted to win the game not just for herself and the program, but to validate all the work Turner had done.

“This was for Jo,” Patras said. “She worked so hard in there and didn’t let anything get to her; not the line drive, not the home run, not anything. We want to always pick one another up out there, and this was a good way to pick up [Turner].”

“I tried to keep to myself in the dugout and just focus,” said Turner, who improved to 31-4 and struck out six while scattering six hits. “I was starting to get nervous toward the end.”

Prairie Ridge didn’t score until the sixth, when Erika Trojan’s single to right drove in Angie Rinn, who had singled, and Seegers knocked a two-out fastball into center that drove in Patras for a 2-1 lead.

Heller answered with the solo home run in the bottom of the inning, but the Wolves were able to keep the score tied until Seegers’ RBI grounder in the eighth.

“This is the biggest accomplishment we’ve ever had,” Trojan said. “I can’t imagine how it will feel if we can finish checking off everything off our sheet and get to our biggest goal.”