Fulton softball advances before trio heads to state track and field

FULTON — Fulton’s Jessa Read, Kylie Smither and Haley Smither hit the road for a four-hour trip to Thursday’s track and field state meet at Eastern Illinois University on Wednesday night.

But not before taking care of business on the softball field.

Read pitched a complete game and each Smither sister scored a run as the Steamers beat Amboy 7-4 in a Class 1A Fulton Regional semifinal.

They advance to face the winner of Thursday’s matchup between Newman and Putnam County in Friday’s final at 4:30 p.m.

Fulton (19-11) took control with a six-run fourth inning, and the Steamers were able to hold off the scrappy Clippers (4-21-1) in chilly conditions.

Read scattered nine hits, struck out five, walked one and allowed three earned runs on 117 pitches. She said moving her pitches was key.

Offensively, the Steamers took advantage of what Amboy gave them.

Belle Curley led Fulton with three hits, and Resse Germann had two hits. Kyra Wilson led off and had two RBIs, and Fulton had six walks as a team.

Read is competing in the 4x400- and 4x800-meter relay preliminaries at state before driving back for Friday’s regional final. Kylie Smither won the sectional title in the shot put, and Haley Smither ran on winning 4x100 and 4x200 relays to qualify for state. State finals are Saturday should they advance.

“Once we finish our events, we’ll just head back and play on Friday,” Read said. “We’ve done this the past two years, so getting used to it. But it’s definitely a lot of late nights and trying to just get in both modes.”

It’s been a cooperative effort between the softball and track and field teams in the spring. The softball team tries to avoid playing on days with a big track meet. Fulton track and field won a sectional title for the second straight year.

On Wednesday, the softball team had dinner at the softball field before the track trio hit the road.

“It’s kind of right where you want to be at this time of year,” Kylie Smither said. “It’s pretty awesome, actually.”

Kylie Smither has managed both spring sports all four years and gotten to state the past two in track.

“You kind of just thrive in the chaos,” she said. “When you’re at softball, you’re focused on softball, but when you’re at track, you’re focused on track. Mentally you have to be 100% all the time.”

Kylie Smither plays first base, and her sister plays the other corner infield spot at third. Both also played basketball and volleyball.

“As a senior, that’s awesome,” she said of playing with her junior sister. “We’ve gotten to play the last three years together. ... It’s like playing catch in the yard when you’re little, and now you’re playing in a regional championship.”

Fulton coach Derek Germann said the school district embraces having athletes in two sports at once.

“[Girls track and field] coach [Lynn] Schipper and myself embrace it,” he said. “We just schedules. We give, we take.”

Luckily for Fulton, the timing worked out even after the game was pushed back a day by rain.

“These parents are going to be super parents here in the next four days with the amount of miles they’re going to put in from Charleston back to Fulton, and hopefully back to Charleston,” Germann said. “It happened when our boys took third in state [in 2015] and we had a bunch of parents doing that. We’re excited. These girls are at a high level.”

Germann said they are great athletes and even better girls.

“We’ve adjusted our practice in softball so they go do a track workout and then they come in with us,” he said. “The level of commitment of these girls is unique.

“I’ve talked to other softball coaches and they’re like, ‘We only let them do it for two years and then they have to make a choice.’ I’m against that. I’m an advocate for let them choose. We’ll make it work.”

After the win, Germann said Amboy is better than its record indicates. The Clippers lost a starting pitcher early in the season and dealt with other lineup changes.

Amboy coach Kelly Whitman said the crooked inning has been costly this season, like it was Wednesday.

Freshman pitcher Tinley Whitney helped keep a dangerous Fulton lineup off the board for the first three innings. Amboy also threw out two Fulton runners at home.

Amboy led 1-0 before Fulton’s big fourth inning. The Clippers scored twice in the fifth and once in the seventh, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

Tyrah Vaessen, Kiera Karlson (two RBIs) and Brittlyn Whitman had two hits apiece for Amboy.

“I thought we did a good job of coming back and putting a few more runs on the board,” Whitman said. “So that was a bright spot for us.”

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Fulton’s Zoe Kunau is tagged out at home by Amboy’s Tyrah Vaessen Wednesday, May 21, 2025, during a Regional semifinal softball game. (Alex T. Paschal)