Whirlwind week for St. Bede’s Lily Bosnich: St. Bede softball notebook

What Lily Bosnich lacks in sleep of late, she makes up for with her speed.

St. Bede’s multitalented junior had a whirlwind last week shuffling between Charleston for the IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet and St. Bede for the softball regional.

She traveled down to Charleston on Wednesday for a final tuneup for state and competed in the state semifinals Thursday morning, advancing in both hurdles events. Then she raced home for the Bruins’ regional semifinal game at home.

Bosnich thought she was there only to cheer on her teammates, but was thrown a little curveball.

“I drove back for the softball game without my uniform because I didn’t think I was on the roster. But apparently I was on the roster. So I would have played,” she said with a laugh.

The talented Bruins squad prevailed 8-6 over El Paso-Gridley without their star in the lineup, and Bosnich contributed to Friday’s 5-3 regional championship win over IVC.

Then it was back to Charleston for Saturday morning’s state track finals, where she ran down a pair of runner-up finishes, setting area records in both hurdles events.

All in a day’s – or days – work. The only thing lacking for Bosnich was sleep.

“With my sisters home, I wanted to spend time with them. Not much [sleep], we’ll say,” she said.

Battle tested

Don’t be fooled by the Bruins’ 16-12 record. They have played 10 games (going 1-9) against teams that won regional championships, including four opponents who have already reached the sectional finals with two more on the threshold in Wednesday’s semifinals.

“We’ve played a lot of good teams all year long. Of our 11 losses, nine of them were against ranked teams. We’ve played some good competition and been right with them,” St. Bede coach Rob Ruppert said. “We played two games with Seneca [lost 6-0 and 5-2] right with them. Henry-Senachwine [lost 3-2 and 5-2)], we were right there with them both of them. Split with Marquette. We’ve played Carterville this year. We’ve played IC Catholic.

“I mean, we’ve played some really good teams. I think it’s really paying off now.”

State experience

Bosnich is one of six current Bruins to make appearances for St. Bede’s state championship run in 2023. Emma Slingsby, Ava Balestri, Quinn McClain, Lili McClain and Bailey Engels also contributed.

Sectional streak

The Bruins are quite familiar with sectional finals appearances, making their fifth appearance since 2018 when they face Brimfield at 5 p.m. Friday at Chillicothe and sixth since 2013. They have won four of the previous five contests with five sectional titles in school history.

Here’s a look at St. Bede’s sectional championship scores since 2006:

2006 – Beat Plano 6-3 (Class A)

2013 – Beat Stillman Valley 1-0, 10 innings (Class 2A)

2018 – Beat Mendota 3-2 (Class 2A)

2019 – Beat Marquette 7-1 (Class 1A)

2022 – Lost to West Central 2-1 (Class 1A)

2023 – Beat West Central 3-1 (Class 1A)

2025 – Play Brimfield on Friday at Chillicothe (Class 2A)