WILMINGTON — The last time Wilmington’s softball team secured a playoff win, its current senior class — Abby Pitts, Grace Burkey, Kaitlyn O’Donnell, Olivia Hansen and Raena DelAngel — had yet to enroll as freshmen in high school.
Having last won a playoff game during their IHSA Class 2A regional championship run in the 2018-19 school year, the year prior to COVID-19, the Wildcats finally ended that drought with a 9-3 home victory over Reed-Custer on Monday in the IHSA Class 2A Regional quarterfinals.
“It feels so great to get my first playoff win today,” Hansen said. “I’m so glad that this wasn’t my last game because that would have been hard.”
Wilmington’s ability to get back to having success in the postseason was largely in part due to the exceptional play of DelAngel and Hansen.
DelAngel put the first runs on the scoreboard for either squad with a three-run blast to left-centerfield in the bottom of the first inning before adding an RBI single and a double in four plate appearances in the five-hole.
Hansen hurled all seven innings on the rubber, allowing six hits, three walks and three runs (two earned) while fanning seven to improve her record to 9-9 on the mound. She also retired 11-straight batters between the first four innings following a leadoff walk to Mya Beard to open the game.
“Without Hansen and DelAngel we wouldn’t be talking right now after a win,” Wildcats head coach Jack Skole said.
Up 3-0 through the top of the third inning, Wilmington added a pair of runs in the bottom of the third in part to a solo shot from Taylor Stefancic and another run off a defensive error by the Comets.
Trailing 5-0 midway through the game Reed-Custer finally answered with a RBI single by Leah Grace to cut its road deficit to 5-1.
Yet, the Wildcats managed to counter with a four-run fifth inning of their own on an RBI single by DelAngel, two-RBI single by Tannya Gross and an RBI single by Stefancic.
The big fifth inning allowed Wilmington to remain relaxed despite allowing the Comets to score two runs in the sixth and make a potential comeback.
“I just told the girls to have fun and let loose,” Reed-Custer coach Madison Hiestand said of her team’s ability to find some late inning success at the plate.
“I think they started to get a feel for Hansen on the mound,” Comets coach Lynn Zoltani added.
Reed-Custer’s loss put an end to its season with a 5-14 overall record. Meanwhile the Wildcats recorded their ninth-straight win to improved to 12-13 following a 3-13 start to the season.
“I definitely think we had a lot of slight fixes that we had to pick up on, and we have better attitudes,” DelAngel said of her team’s recent turnaround. “We trust in each other more, for sure, and we came together more as a team.
“I think we all started taking ball more serious too, and that was a huge thing for us.”
STAT BOOK
DelAngel went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored to help lead Wilmington at the plate. Stefancic added three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Gross chipped in a two-RBI single.
Grace Cavanaugh went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored to help lead the Comets. Leah Grace and Emma Wilson each had an RBI single. Addison Brown and Jessica Janopoulos had one double apiece. Brown suffered the loss on the mound, giving up 11 hits and nine runs (eight earned) with seven strikeouts.
Cody is a sports journalist who's been with the Daily Journal since 2020. He's been a sports reporter since his days at the University of Iowa where he graduated in 2019.
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