Bill Welt
Springfield State Journal- Register
Video: Addison Wheatley, Auburn softball claim three-peat regional title
Auburn’s Addison Wheatley belted the go-ahead RBI triple in the sixth in a 1-0 Class 2A regional final win over Carlinville.
AUBURN — Addison Wheatley was shaking in the batter’s box.
The senior first baseman swatted away the jitters with a blistering RBI triple to the center field wall in the sixth inning en route to Auburn’s 1-0 victory over Carlinville in the Class 2A softball regional final on Saturday, May 24.
“You’ve got to lock in when your team needs you,” Wheatley said.
The top-seeded Trojans (24-5) advance to the Macomb Sectional semifinals against No. 2 Sangamo Conference foe Stanford Olympia on Wednesday, May 28 at 4:30 p.m.
It was not only Auburn’s third straight regional title after last year’s state final appearance in a co-op with Lutheran, but also their third consecutive 1-0 win over the Cavaliers stretching back to last season.
Senior ace Meena Taylor totaled 16 strikeouts in a complete game. She gave up five hits and one walk.
The State Journal-Register’s reigning Small School Softball Player of the Year worked out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the top of the sixth.
“That was a stressful one, but I like to give people heart attacks,” Taylor jested. “I think it’s just having confidence in myself knowing my defense has me. Taylor (Patterson) came up with an amazing play (on a diving stop at second base), too. Just knowing I can rely on my team and have my back, there’s comfort in that.”
Carlinville junior ace Hallie Gibson gave up seven hits and one walk over six innings. She had two strikeouts.
She forced a double play to escape out of her own bases-loaded dilemma in the fourth. Her older sister, Hannah, was out of the lineup to compete in the Class 1A girls track and field state finals in Charleston, where she won the discus throw by a half a foot with a winning effort of 141-feet, 8-inches.
“We knew it was going to be a tight game all the way through,” said their mom and head coach, Julie Gibson. “This is the third time in a row that we’ve played them that the score ended up 1-0, so we told the girls in the dugout this is going to be a one-run ball game and that’s all it took.”
Both dugouts expected a defensive grind, with neither team committing an error and stupendous glove saves to boot. Sophomore third baseman Addison Jones jumpstarted the bottom half of the sixth with a liner just past the outstretched glove of Kendal Maddox.
Wheatley then barreled up the ball on a full count. Jones finished 3-for-3 at the plate.
“She’s a good pitcher, so we were just trying to put the bat on the ball and try to keep it on the ground,” Patterson said. “They were catching everything, and finally in the end, Addi (Jones) got her hit and Addison (Wheatley) blasted one out there, so that was the best feeling ever.
“She hit that ball a long ways. I’m so proud of Addison and Addi for putting that together and carrying our team. Meena carried our team pitching today and we played great defense.”
Class 2A Auburn baseball regional
AUBURN 11, LITCHFIELD 2: Peyton Campbell provided the go-ahead 2-RBI single in the second inning and the Trojans secured their second straight regional title.
The junior first baseman also had a 2-RBI double in the seventh to finish with four RBIs after Tucker Dennis extended the margin 9-2 with a 2-RBI single in the sixth.
Auburn (14-13) advances to the Pleasant Plains Sectional semifinals against the top-seeded hosts on Wednesday, May 28 at 4:30 p.m.
Campbell said he has been seeing the ball well, evident by only having seven strikeouts this season. It was just a matter of the team stringing hits together.
“We’ve been hitting pretty well recently together finally,” Campbell said. “We’ve kind of had a rough season a little bit hitting, so we’re finally starting to figure it out.”
Senior pitcher Brady Boylen gave up one earned run on four hits and one walk with four strikeouts.
Boylen thrived on a combination of first strikes and curveballs, not to mention an impeccable defense.
“I’ve thrown it for a while, it’s one of my favorite pitches,” Boylen said of his curveball. “But anything works when you’ve got a defense playing like that behind you. I’m proud of my guys.
“You don’t have to strike everyone out with a defense like that. I’m just proud of everyone, it was a great team effort. We hit, played defense — that’s winning baseball.”