A lot of times, it's not the big things where games can often turn.
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It's the little things, the things that don't show up on a box score or in a report on the game.
To Marquette softball coach Dan Wiedman, it was some of those little things that added up as the Explorers fell to Highland 5-2 in the IHSA Class 3A Civic Memorial Regional final at Bethalto Sports Complex Friday evening. The game had been scheduled for late Saturday morning, but weather forecasts of severe storms led the teams and organizers to move the game up.
The win sent the Bulldogs to next week's Mascoutah Sectional, where they will take on Carbondale, who defeated Marion 8-3 in the Herrin Regional final Friday. Highland took their record to 23-9 with the win; Marquette was eliminated with a mark of 22-14
“It was a lot of little things,” said Weidman. “A lot of small plays that made the difference. The kids wanted it bad; they gave it everything they had, as they have all season. It was just some little things that made the difference.”
Little things like what appeared to be a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth that would had given Marquette the lead. It started when Megan Wittch hit a fly ball to Highland right fielder Aubrey Hacke with one out and a run in for the Explorers.
Grace Frost was at third when the ball was hit, and appeared to tag up when the catch was made and dashed home safely with the lead run. But Hacke instead threw the ball to third, where Riley Kassay tagged the base. The umpires ruled Frost had left a beat too early and called her out, negating the run.
“That was the right call,” Wiedman said. “We've talked about it a lot, but kids get anxious and things happen.
“We had other opportunities to win the game, to be sure, but that was a big play.”
The Bulldogs, all day long, seemed to come up with the big plays when they needed them as well as the right bounce of the ball, and Bulldog coach Brittne' Zobrist acknowledged it. “We got some nice bounces to go our way,” Zobrist said. “We executed pretty well and used our speed to our advantage on the bases.”
One thing Highland had been depending on was strong defense. “We've got some good pitchers,” Zobrist said, “but our main thing is that our defense is strong. Our pitchers know that they don't have to strike out a lot of folks, that they can depend on the defense to make plays behind them.”
Highland grabbed the lead in the second when Kassay singled, went to second on a wild pitch, stole third and came home on a throwing error; Marquette bounced right back to tie it when Emma Taylor led off with a single and came around to score on a Grace Frost RBI single.
The Bulldogs took the lead back in the fourth when Hannah Miener singled and went to second on a passed ball, then came around to score when Kassay reached on an error (one of four Explorer errors on the day) to put themselves back on top.
Then came the pivotal top of the fifth. It started when Sam Harshbarger was hit by a Kristen Plocher pitch and went to third on a Frost single. Kylie Buecker then singled in Harshbarger, with Frost going to third, bringing up Megan Wittrich, who lifted a fly ball to Hacke that set off the chain of events that led to Frost being doubled off third.
In the bottom of the fifth, Highland took the lead for good on a two-run double from Peyton Holzinger that scored Hacke and Rutz, then got an insurance run in the sixth on a Gabi Berolatti single that brought home Kassay.
The Explorers do have a bright future ahead of them; the core of this year's team was made up mostly of freshmen and sophomores, including pitcher Meghan Schorman, who made an impression among area softball followers. Wiedman is optimistic about his team's prospects heading into 2016 and beyond.
“We have a lot of good young kids,” Wiedman said, “but our four seniors this year also worked hard and provided some great leadership for the team. We had a 22-win season, won (the Prairie State Conference) championship and got to the regional final this year, so we had a pretty good year.”
