Brimfield rallies to beat St. Bede 4-1 in sectional final

CHILLICOTHE – Brimfield coach Kurt Juerjens couldn’t remember the last time this season that his junior ace pitcher Sawyer Drury gave up a run.

It only took St. Bede one inning to break Drury’s scoreless streak in Friday’s Class 2A Chillicothe Sectional championship game. Macy Strauch smacked a RBI double to center field, the first postseason run Drury had allowed in four games.

Strauch, St. Bede’s sophomore ace pitcher, took that one-run lead as far as she could before surrendering four runs in the bottom of the sixth when the Indians rallied for a 4-1 victory.

“Many people didn’t think we’d get this far, so it’s amazing to finish top 16 overall in the state,” St. Bede junior Lily Bosnich said. “And I’m proud of all of us. We fought really hard and got so much better from the beginning.”

Bosnich didn’t think the Bruins carried over the momentum from Tuesday’s 3-2 semifinal win over Sherrard.

“The energy was not as good as it should have been at the beginning, which I think threw us off,” she said, “because I believe we won the last game from our energy. And today felt a little different, I believe.”

The Bruins bow out with a 16-13 record, reaching the sectional final for the third time in four years and fifth time since 2018, winning three.

“We played some tough teams all year long and we played a good team tonight,” St. Bede coach Rob Ruppert said. “I told the girls we fell a little short where we wanted to be, but I’m proud as heck of them because they fought all year long. There’s a lot of teams in the state that would like to be the loser in the sectional championship.”

Brimfield’s sixth-inning started innocently enough when Anja Nelson, the No. 9 batter in the Indians’ lineup appeared to have grounded out to Strauch in the circle. Nelson was ruled out at first by the base umpire, but upon an appeal by Brimfield, the home plate overruled the call, saying the throw pulled first baseman Jillian Pinter’s foot off the base.

Drury then smacked a hit to the very same spot in right field she had in the third inning for her second hit of the game, and Kendall Binder reached on a bloop hit to left to load the bases.

Freshman Reese Legaspi tied the game 1-1 with a sacrifice fly to center.

Sophomore Layla Hersemann drove a two-run triple over right fielder Quinn McClain to the base of the fence, just beating the throw to third and giving the Indians a 3-1 lead.

“I’m really always looking for my one pitch. If I see that pitch, I know I’m swinging, even if it’s early in the count,” Hersemann said.

Juerjens then called for a squeeze, and sophomore Brooke Allen laid down a beauty, scoring Hersemann to make it 4-1.

The Brimfield coach didn’t know if the Indians would ever break through against Strauch.

“Their pitcher did a nice job keeping us off balance. When the game’s going on, you’re wondering, ‘What can we do to change this?’” he said. “I thought she spun it well, just kept us off balance to no end. We were very, very fortunate to get it that one inning. Things just kind of got going.”

Drury struck out the Bruins’ first two batters of the game, Bosnich and Emma Slingsby, but Lili McClain drew a walk and stole second. Strauch smacked a double that just tickled the glove of Nelson, the Brimfield center fielder.

The Bruins did not score again against Drury, who fanned 15, but battled to the end.

Ava Balestri and Maci Kelly hit back-to-back singles in the top of the seventh with one out, but Drury retired the next two batters to send Brimfield to the supersectional for the first time since 2015, when it was state runner-up.

“Sawyer doesn’t give up much. Can’t remember the last earned run she gave up, about three weeks ago, I think,” Juerjens said.

“She throws hard. We couldn’t lay off that high fastball at times and it hurt us,” Ruppert said. “Tip your cap to her. And I thought our pitcher was just as good.”

“She was really good. We hadn’t seen much of a riseball that good and changeup that good. I think that’s what threw us off,” Bosnich said.

The Indians (33-3) face Beecher (34-2) in the East Peoria Supersectional at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Eastside Centre. Beecher beat Seneca 1-0 at Seneca.