Small ball, Lauren Harbison lead Henry to repeat regional title, wins record

ANNAWAN - For the first six innings Saturday, Henry-Senachwine pitcher Lauren Harbison mowed down the Annawan-Wethersfield lineup, allowing just one hit.

But in the top of the seventh, Harbison found herself in a jam.

A misplayed grounder, a single and a double cut the Mallards’ lead to two and had the tying run on second base with one out.

“I was a little bit stressed, but I had to keep it together and keep calm because I knew we could pull it out,” Harbison said. I took a deep breath and had fait in my teammates that they were going to back me up in the field and I just had to throw strikes.”

Harbison and the No. 1-seeded Mallards did pull it out as she struck out the next two batters to cap off a 3-1 victory over the No. 4 Titans in the Class 1A Wethersfield Regional championship.

“It’s very exciting to do this for my senior year,” Henry right fielder Lexi Serpette said. “I don’t think there’s a better team to do it with. All the girls love each other and I think that made the win more exciting.”

The win was extra special for the Mallards as it was the first time in school history the softball team won back-to-back regional titles and the win broke the program record for victories in a season as Henry improved to 23-3. The old record was 22 wins set in 1981.

“It’s great,” Henry coach Lori Stenstrom said. “They just keep breaking records, so let’s keep it going.

“They’ve played together forever from when they were little and our team chemistry is great. They deserve it because they’ve worked so hard.”

Henry advances to play defending Class 1A state champion AlWood (23-10-2) at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the AlWood Sectional. The Mallards beat the Spartans 4-3 in nine innings on March 29 in Henry.

“We’re a better team than we were then and they’re going to be better than they were, so I expect a good ball game,” Stenstrom said. “We’re going to have to hit better.”

The Mallards had trouble getting much going against A-W ace Madi Smith on Saturday.

Henry had just two hits through three innings before turning to small ball in the fourth inning.

Brynna Anderson was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Bella Williams bunted for a single and Rylan Davis laid down a sacrifice bunt.

Serpette put down a sac bunt to score Anderson before Rachel Eckert reached on an error to plate Williams.

“We bunt a lot in practice so it felt natural for all of us,” Serpette said. “It was very important to get those down.

“I was running to first (after my bunt) so I couldn’t see the play behind me, but as soon as I heard all the cheers, I knew she got home and I was super pumped up after I heard that.”

Stenstrom said the Mallards weren’t timing Smith well.

“We were early,” Stenstrom said. “We were hitting off the front foot and hitting grounders. Finally, we got the bunting going and scored a couple.

“We bunt every single day and it came back to help us here. We got it in play and they had an error. We think (bunting) is important and they buy into that. Sometimes that’s what you need to do to get those runs. We weren’t doing it swinging away, so we went to that and it help.”

Henry added a run in the fifth when Brynna Anderson singled and later scored on a single by Davis.

The three runs were enough for Harbison.

She threw a complete game, allowing one unearned run on three hits while striking out 11 batters.

“I mixed up my pitches,” Harbison said. “My riseball and my changeup were definitely my key pitches today.”