'Dream come true': Illinois team makes trip to Senior League Softball World Series
One week after a team of youth softball players from Illinois wrapped up play in the Senior League Softball World Series, the athletes and coaches will have a welcome-home parade Sunday in Rushville.
The District 17 Senior Softball team will cap off a memorable summer that saw it win state and regional championships before qualifying for the World Series trip in Delaware: the first of coach Tom Orr’s tenure in charge of the program.
“I always tell (his teams), ‘Let’s make a run at the Little League World Series’ and usually we fall a couple of outs short,” Orr said. “But this year we actually made that dream come true and made the trip to Delaware.”
Of the 13 players on the Illinois team, four were from schools in Springfield area: right fielder Addie Greene of Rushville-Industry and first baseman Abby Cowell, second baseman Jaylynn Sarnes and left fielder Liz Waymire of Havana. Orr is from Beardstown and assistant coach Richard Henry is from Franklin. Another assistant, Shawna Robinson, led Macomb to the Class 2A Athens Sectional championship in May by beating both Williamsville and Buffalo Tri-City.
More:How this Lincoln graduate became Florida's top high school softball coach
Road to the World Series
The Illinois representative also came out of the Central Region with a 4-1 record. That included a 6-3 win on July 26 over the same Michigan District 9 team which beat it 14-6 the day before for the regional title.
The District 17 Little League region runs from Quincy and east to Ashland. Its northern and southern areas are around Macomb and Alton, respectively. The team plays a minimum of 10 league games to qualify for the state tournament. Orr has been close to the Senior League Softball World Series before, but said his teams just didn’t break through.
“I’ve been to regional championship games three times and twice I’ve been short — I’ve been up a run with four outs to go and came up one run short both times,” Orr said.
He was confident this team had the talent to make it at least that far, if not beyond, this year.
“I thought that when we were playing our league games over in Jacksonville,” Orr said. “I thought we might have a chance. I thought this team had the potential to get to that spot again and give themselves a chance and they actually did.”
It was anything but a great start in the regionals, though. District 17 committed nine errors and lost 14-6. Illinois bounced back with a 6-2 win over another Michigan team — from Taylor — and on Tuesday beat Missouri and Indiana by identical 10-0 scores to get into the title game. Illinois’ win qualified the team for the World Series.
“I knew that wasn’t our style of ball,” Orr said of the nine-error game, “so I thought if they played their game and cleaned up the defense, we’d have a chance to get to the championship game and at least compete.
“I didn’t one time think we couldn’t win. There’s wasn’t a team I saw in the regional or in the World Series I didn’t think we couldn’t compete with.”
Best of 2022Here are The State Journal-Register's high school softball all-stars
How they fared in Delaware
In the World Series, the Central Region reps cruised to a 3-0 record in pool play with wins over California, Florida and Canada. Illinois dropped its final pool play game, 8-6, to the Netherlands, but still landed the No. 1 seed in the bracket.
In the quarterfinals, Curaçao — coincidentally a Dutch Caribbean island — beat Illinois 2-0 behind 16 strikeouts from J’Dah Girigorie.
“We played the Latin American team, they had only won one game but they had the best pitcher in the tournament and she pitched her career-best game … and we only had one hit,” Orr said. “We just couldn’t touch her. We came out swinging early in the count trying to get our pitch and it just didn’t work out.”
In a consolation game, Illinois beat the same Calgary team it met in pool play, 6-5.
“You always want to win your last game because most times that means you’re a state champion or whatever and we won our last game, but it wasn’t the game we wanted to be in,” Orr said.
District 17’s record over the two tournaments was 8-3. Orr said this experience will help the girls’ high school softball teams next year.
"You do something like this, and you come out next year and you have the confidence to either take your team from regionals to sectionals or from sectionals to the state tournament,” Orr said. “They know they are good and they know they can play with anybody to get past the next level.”
The parade will begin around 6 p.m. at the Schuyler County Fire Protection District building on Adams Street in Rushville. The players will be atop a firetruck.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Senior League Softball World Series: Illinois team makes trip to Delaware
