How this Rockford softball program went from 2 wins a year to 2 all-staters

Two used to mean the number of conference wins in a season for Auburn’s softball team.

And that was rounding up, with only 77 wins in 42 years.

Now two is the number of Class 4A all-staters Auburn has. Senior shortstop Maya Viel was named second team by the Illinois Coaches Association. Junior third baseman Jalyn Yakey was named third team. The coaches pick around 100 players in each class on its three teams.

Harlem’s second-team pick Alaina Schwanke was the only other NIC-10 player honored in 4A, although five players were honored in Class 3A: Belvidere North’s McKenzie Culvey and Becca Schwartz, Freeport’s Macy Olson and Kailen Pro and Belvidere’s McKenna Morris.

All the honorees: Here are the Illinois Coaches Association all-state teams

Auburn coach Jessica (Basford) Palos thinks Auburn had only one all-stater in history before.

“It’s crazy,” said Viel, who batted .472 with nine home runs, 37 RBIs, 41 runs scored and a 1.462 on-base plus slugging average in 30 games. “I wasn’t even thinking of all-state. When my coach texted me that Jalyn and i made it, I didn’t even think that was a thing that could happen to me. It was crazy.”

All-state dreams seamed unreal from a team that had gone 77-609 in the NIC-10 in its previous 42 seasons. This year, Auburn finished 17-13 overall and 10-8 in the NIC-10, its first winning record in the conference and only its second winning season overall.

“It’s a big deal,” Palos said. “We know how hard we are working and what gains we are making. It’s nice to see teams inside and outside the conference notice that, too. The work that we are putting in is showing.”

Auburn had two other firsts this year. Sophomore outfielder Maddie Conklin and junior catcher Abi Race combined with Viel and Yakey to give the Knights four players who made either first-team all-conference or honorable mention. That is twice as many as any other year in Auburn history. And the Knights also beat perennial powers Harlem and Freeport the second time around in the conference. The 6-2 win over Harlem was Auburn’s first over the Huskies in their 43-year history.

More: NIC-10 MVPs, coaches of the year, standings, all-conference teams for every spring sport

“Oh my gosh. That was crazy,” Viel said. “That wasn’t even on my radar.”

“For the school as a whole, this season was huge,” Yakey said. “I saw it coming. We have a lot of travel players coming up. We put the school out there.

“We set a base. We have a strong base here already. And we have a strong base coming up.”

Yakey said she expected Viel to make all-state, but didn’t expect to get there herself.

“I was quite surprised about me, but I was not surprised about Maya,” said Yakey, who hit .429 with 24 RBIs and 35 runs scored. “Her bat has been a huge piece of getting us where we are. Everything she has done with her bat has been instrumental in getting us where we are now.”

Yakey expects even more in the future. Auburn will return all but two starters and also brings back pitcher Ally Lowery, who earned 15 of the team’s 17 wins as a sophomore and struck out 11 in the win over Harlem.

“Having her consistent on the mound helped our infield and outfield make the plays we needed,” Palos said. “In the past, teams got a lot more solid hits off us, making it harder to make those plays. It all works together. She gave our infielders balls they can handle by getting them to hit into situations where we can field and defend.”

Two all-state players. Four all-conference players. A win over Harlem. A winning record in the NIC-10. All things Auburn has never done before in over four decades. But the 10-8 mark to tie Freeport for fifth in the conference was the best thing of all. At least so far.

“The best thing we could have done this year was come out in the top half of the conference,” said Viel, who expects her former teammates to do even more next year. “The individual stuff is nice, but it’s just the cherry on top. It’s a team sport. The team stuff is always the most important.”

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And if Auburn does go on to re-break its school records next year — and in the years after — Viel will consider herself part of that, too.

“It would be great to think that I helped set the groundwork for this at Auburn,” said Viel, who has signed to play in college at NCAA Division III Augustana. “We will have some more good girls coming in next year. And it was nice to come out with a winning record this year to show people we were more than a non-threatening program.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @MattTrowbridge. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Matt has covered sports for the Register Star for more than 30 years after previously working for papers in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City. He grew up on a farm in northwest Minnesota with six brothers and a sister. His four daughters all graduated from Rockford Public Schools.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Auburn softball turns program around and now has 2 all-staters