Trojans walk off as champs

Taylor Dunne (second fro right) is swarmed by her Cary-Grove teammates after hitting a three-run walk-off home run to defeat Jacobs, 5-2, in eight innings Saturday in the championship game of the IHSA Class 4A Huntley Sectional. (Don Lansu for the Northwest Herald)

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HUNTLEY – The tears were flowing, the cameras were snapping and another Cary-Grove varsity team wrote its own chapter in what has been an incredible school year for Trojans athletics.

C-G’s softball team pulled within one win of a trip to East Peoria for the IHSA Class 4A state semifinals next weekend, thanks to a walk-off three-run homer by sophomore outfielder Taylor Dunne and a four-hitter by freshman pitcher Lindsay Efflandt that propelled the Trojans past Jacobs, 5-2 in eight innings, in Saturday’s IHSA Class 4A Huntley Sectional final.

C-G advances to the Judson University Supersectional at 7 p.m. Tuesday against either Elk Grove Village or West Chicago, whose game Saturday was postponed until Monday because of rain.

Should the Trojans win Tuesday, they would become the school’s third varsity team in the 2009-10 school year to reach a state championship game or state finals tournament.

Between that, the walk-off homer and Efflandt’s dominant performance, the emotions were overwhelming.

“This is what we dreamed about since the start of the season,” Dunne said, “and right now all of that hard work is paying off.”

The Trojans (32-6) led, 2-0, after four innings, and Jacobs scored one run in the fifth and another in the seventh to tie the score and send it into extra innings.

Dunne came to the plate with one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth. She smacked a 1-1 fastball from Jacobs junior Marissa Lombardo, and the ball settled in the grass behind the left-field fence. C-G’s fans rose to their feet as pinch-runner Ellen Celsek – running for Efflandt after a single – freshman catcher Sarah Leudo and Dunne crossed home plate.

“I was thinking, ‘Do your job, just do your job,’” Dunne said. “It was up to me to get it done.”

Efflandt had singled in the Trojans’ first two runs in the bottom of the first. Her shot up the middle drove in junior center fielder Alexis Haley and senior first baseman Abbe Wienckowski, who each had singled.

“It’s so surreal,” Efflandt said, wiping tears from her eyes. “We just want to keep working because we know we can do this.”

Jacobs junior catcher Ashley Morales ripped an RBI single to right field, scoring freshman second baseman Nicky Chapa, who had reached on an error, to cut the Trojans’ lead to one run in the top of the fifth. The Golden Eagles (23-12) tied the score at 2 on a fielding error in the top of the seventh.

Lombardo kept the Trojans off balance, allowing three hits in the first but scattering three more over the next seven innings.

Jacobs coach Jeremy Bauer was impressed with his pitcher and pleased with how well his team performed in the regular season and playoffs.

“We weren’t expected to compete for a title or win a regional championship,” said Bauer, “but we outlived those expectations and came together as a team.”