Two area teams are going for IHSA sectional championships this weekend in the IHSA Class 4A Softball Championship and IHSA Class 3A Baseball Championship.
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Edwardsville’s softball team will meet Rock Island at 4:30 p.m. today in the Pekin Sectional final, a game that was moved up from its original Saturday morning start time; the winner advances to the Normal Super-Sectional game at Illinois State against the winner of Saturday’s Joliet West Sectional final between Minooka and Frankfort Lincoln-Way East at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Monday’s winner moves into next weekend’s Class 4A state tournament at East Peoria’s EastSide Centre against the Rosemont Stadium 2 Super-Sectional winner at 3 p.m. June 8; the final is set for 5:30 p.m. June 9, with the third-place game set for 3 p.m. prior to the final. Edwardsville reached today’s game with a 3-0 win over Belleville East in Edwardsville Tuesday while the Rocks advanced with a 4-0 win over Bradley-Bourbonnais in the other semifinal game Tuesday in Pekin.
Triad’s baseball team will meet Columbia at 11 a.m. Saturday in the final of the Centralia Sectional; the Knights moved into Saturday’s game after defeating Marion 6-0 Wednesday evening in the sectional semifinal while the Eagles eliminated Mount Vernon 8-4 earlier in the day; Triad reached the sectional by winning the Mascoutah Regional last week, defeating Waterloo 4-2 in the semifinals and the host Indians 12-6 in the final to move to Centralia.
The Knights-Eagles winner will meet Rochester or Chatham Glenwood, whoever wins the Decatur MacArthur Sectional final Saturday, in the Sauget Super-Sectional at GCS Ballpark at 4 p.m. Monday, with that winner going to next weekend’s Class 3A state tournament at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet, home of the Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers. The Sauget winner meets the Crestwood 1 Super-Sectional game at noon June 8 in the state semifinals; the final is set for 11 a.m. June 9, preceded at 9 a.m. by the third-place game.
Edwardsville and Rock Island have a bit of a recent history between them – at least in girls basketball; the two schools have clashed in the last four Class 4A basketball sectional finals. “We haven’t had the opportunity to see their softball very often,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade, “but they’re traditionally good too, so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge for us. You can’t win a sectional final if you can’t get into the championship; we’ll take our chances.”
The fact that the Tiger seniors want to keep the season alive is certainly a factor going into today’s game. “It helps a ton,” Blade said. “The underclassmen want to push it along to get those guys to keep playing and spend some more time together; this is a very special group just from that standpoint.”
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