MTZ softball wins regional

The Mt. Zion softball team after accepting their Regional championship trophy defeating Champaign Central 10-0.

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

Two seniors set the tone for Mt. Zion softball team on the opposite side of the diamond in their last game at Mt. Zion. Dakota Harrison struck out two to start the game defensively, and in the first at-bat and fifth pitch of the game Kennedy Highley smashed a homer over the right centerfield wall to propel the Braves to a 10-0 regional championship win over Champaign Central.

“We’ll enjoy this for a couple days,” Head coach Greg Blakey said.” “We played well, we scored runs every innings which is great, so we will enjoy this.”

The Braves pounded on Central with Addi Rotz string on with an E8 and then Harrison hit a single. The Braves brought in Harrison’s pinch runner Ella Fink to give the Braves a 2-0 first inning lead.

Harrison went out the second inning and struck out three more batters. Senior Molly Besser then led off the bottom of the second with a bunt and then stole second, third and home plate to give the Braves a 3-0 lead.

Harrison went on to strike out 11 batters and allowed only two hits in the win.

“Dakota has been a workhorse for us,” Coach Blakey said. She has pitched very well and she doesn’t walk anybody this year, which has been a huge thing for us and has just done a nice job on the mound commanding her pitches and keeping everything off balanced a little bit.”

The Braves advanced to face Springfield High in the sectional semifinals at Chatham-Glenwood this week. If the Braves win they will face the winner of Chatham-Glenwood or Mahomet-Seymour on Friday.

“We have to do the same thing we’ve done all year,” Coach Blakey said “We’re not worried about the other team and we just need to take care of what we do and what we do well and if we can control what we do well, we’ll be fine.”