Softball | Illinois Valley
NewsTribune-area softball players have hit more home runs in each of the last five seasons. This spring, 44 players combined to hit 146 home runs, with four players hitting double-digit homers.
The Tri-County, Three Rivers East and Little Ten announced all-conference teams, plus more in the NewsTribune sports briefs.
The Illinois Coaches Association this week announced its lists of ICA All-State selections from the recently completed 2026 softball season, with numerous Times-area standouts honored.
L-P's Taylor Vescogni and Princeton's Avah Oertel were voted Illinois Coaches Association First-Team All State, while nine other NewsTribune-area players were honored.
Seneca seniors Lexie Buis, Camryn Stecken and Tessa Krull led the Fighting Irish softball team to a runner-up finish at the IHSA Class 2A State Finals at Peoria's Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.
The Seneca softball team battled to the very end but came up just short in a 3-1 loss to Carterville in Saturday's IHSA Class 2A championship on OSF Healthcare Field inside the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria. The Fighting Irish ended the season 39-3.
Some unlikely heroes – and some likely ones too – came through when the Seneca softball team needed it most Thursday in the Fighting Irish’s wild 8-6 Class 2A state semifinal victory over IC Catholic at Peoria’s Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.
Gardner-South Wilmington's softball team dropped a 10-inning thriller 2-1 to Waltonville in Thursday's IHSA Class 1A state semifinals in Peoria before bouncing back with a 10-5 win over Okawville in Friday's third-place game, ending the program's historic season with a win.
La Salle-Peru baseball, softball and soccer players earned All-Interstate 8 Conference honors, plus more in the NewsTribune sports briefs.
La Salle-Peru graduate and former NewsTribune Female Athlete of the Year Taylor Maryn earned all-conference honors as well as two academic honors as a member of the St. Ambrose University softball team.
The Seneca softball team is looking to take two more steps, starting with Thursday's 2:30 p.m. IHSA Class 2A state semifinal against IC Catholic at Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria.
Marengo's Gabby Christopher was named the Kishwaukee River Conference Player of the Year and Woodstock North's Kylee Nicholson earned Pitcher of the Year honors. Here is the rest of the 2026 All-KRC softball team, as selected by coaches.
Seneca junior pitcher Hayden Pfeifer scattered four hits, walked one and struck out 11 in leading the softball Fighting Irish to a 3-0 Class 2A supersectional victory over Brimfield at EastSide Centre on Monday.
Seneca overcame a seventh-inning Beecher rally for a 6-5 victory in the IHSA Class 2A Pontiac Sectional championship on Friday, May 29, 2026.
Behind elite defense and another dominant outing from ace Maddie Simms, Gardner-South Wilmington punched its ticket to the supersectional while ending Serena‘s cinderella postseason run with a 4-1 victory on Friday night.
The La Salle-Peru softball team's season ended Friday with a 10-0 loss to Dunlap in the Class 3A L-P Sectional championship.
After Beecher turned a three-run deficit to a one-run lead with a two-out rally in the top of the seventh, Seneca's Emma Mino delivered the walk-off single in the Class 2A Pontiac Sectional championship to give the Fighting Irish their first sectional title in program history.
Serena senior pitcher Cassie Walsh blasted a tie-breaking two-run homer in the top of the seventh, then retired Newark in order in the Huskers' wild 10-8 win over the Norsemen in Wednesday's Class 1A Indian Creek Sectional softball semifinal in Shabbona.