Down to their last out, Marquette's Anthony Couch delivered a walk-off two-run home run to give the Crusaders a 4-3 win over host Bishop McNamara in Saturday's Class 2A regional title game.

The Ottawa baseball team was limited to just three hits by Metamora's Mason Sauder and the host Redbirds put together two big scoring innings in Saturday's 9-1 loss in the Class 3A regional championship game. The Pirates finished the season at 19-13-1, the most wins in 13 years.

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.

Ottawa’s Joey Liebhart, Streator’s LA Moton, and Sandwich’s Jacob Ross and Luis Murillo all advanced to Saturday's IHSA Class 2A state finals after Friday's preliminaries at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Ottawa boys tennis state qualifiers Kaden Araujo and Ayden Sexton earned a win at the IHSA State Finals, a handful of area Class 1A track and field athletes advanced to Saturday down in Charleston, and more in The Times Thursday Roundup.

The Marquette, Serena and Dwight baseball teams won regional semifinals on Wednesday to advance to Saturday championship contests, while Earlville/Leland had its season come to a close.

Adam Swanson pitched a complete game, one-hit shutout and launched a late three-run home run Wednesday night to lead the Pirates to a four-game season sweep of archrival La Salle-Peru 8-0 in the semifinals of the Class 3A Metamora Regional.

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.

Hayden Pfeifer pitched a one-hit shutout, Aurora Weber got the scoring started, and Emma Mino drove home three runs as Seneca softball bested St. Bede 10-0 in the Tuesday semifinal of the Class 2A Pontiac Sectional.