Indians hang tough with top-ranked Tigers, but fall in Class 1A sectional semifinals

GLASFORD, Ill. — When Payson Seymour coach Joe Fessler addressed his team after their 6-1 loss to Illini Bluffs in the Class 1A Glasford Sectional semifinal on Tuesday, there were some understandably disappointed faces.

“Some of them had some tears in their eyes,” Fessler said. “I don’t think it was necessarily tears that we lost. It was tears that this was the last game we were going to play with each other for a while.”

But when they realized that they played last year’s state runners-up and the current No. 1 ranked team in Class 1A to a 1-1 game over the final six innings, their countenances changed.

“You saw their eyes get big a little bit,” Fessler said. “After we pointed that out to them, they stood a little taller. They understand that next year, yeah, we’re getting them.”

Four of the Tigers’ five first-inning runs came on one swing — a grand slam with one out by Morgan Lowe. She fell behind 0-2 and fouled off four two-strike pitches before belting a 1-2 pitch from Abby Hagerbaumer over the center-field fence.

Lowe may not have gotten a chance to hit in that inning if not for two consecutive errors — one on a bunt by No. 2 hitter Annabelle Fortin and another on a pop fly into shallow left field by Lexi Brinkman in the next at-bat. Indians shortstop Megan Kirby retreated to make the catch on Brinkman’s pop up, but the ball hit off her glove and fell to the grass, allowing Sara Finn, who led off the game with a single, to score the first run of the game.

Chloe Eeten walked, Cora Ellison struck out and Lowe then cleared the bases.

“We had a miscue here and there that cost us some runs, and if we don’t have those miscues, we’re not in that jam and (Lowe) doesn’t hit that grand slam,” Fessler said. “She might hit a home run the next inning, but that’s one run compared to four.”

Brinkman led off the third inning with a home run to extend the Tigers’ lead to 6-0, but that was the last of the damage done by the Tigers’ lineup. Hagerbaumer held the Tigers to just one hit the rest of the game and retired seven of the final eight batters she faced.

The Indians (16-17) cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth with a Kirby RBI single. An Ella Archer single two pitches later put runners at first and second with one out, but a Grace Klitz fielder’s choice ground out and a Bryn Buescher strikeout ended the inning. Ellison retired the Indians in order in the bottom of the seventh.

Fessler made the whole school aware of the Indians’ never-say-die attitude earlier that day.

“We had a pep assembly before we left school, and I told all the students that’s one thing you will not see these girls do — they’re not going to give up, they’re not going to give into fear, they’re not going to give into failure,” Fessler said. “They’re going to keep going, and that’s exactly what they did.”

Another encouraging sign for Fessler and the Indians is that they had no seniors on this year’s team.

And they will be ready if the No. 1-ranked team in the state stands in their way again.

“Just getting this experience from this sectional game, they know what to expect,” Fessler said. There are no excuses come next year. Now, the result might be the same, but you can’t say you weren’t prepared.”