Macie Robbins leads Providence to regional championship win over Marian Catholic

NEW LENOX - Macie Robbins didn’t turn 15 until Friday.

As a belated present, Providence Catholic softball coach Jim Holba sent the freshman into the circle for the Class 3A Providence Regional championship game against Marian Catholic on Saturday morning.

Then, Robbins celebrated her birthday weekend with her teammates by actually giving them, and Holba, a gift herself: A gem of a pitching performance and regional championship.

Robbins was sensational once again at pitcher for the Celtics, striking out nine batters, walking none and only giving up one run in a complete game. The Celtic offense did what it needed to back her up and earn a 2-1 win and a trip to the Ottawa Sectional semifinals.

It was the latest in a season full of outstanding performances for the freshman phenom. After Saturday’s win, Robbins is 19-4 with 199 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.53 on the season.

Still, she was a freshman starting the regional championship game against a Catholic school rival. That’s a lot of pressure for anyone. She didn’t deny there were some nerves going into the game, but she also embraced the challenge.

“I felt good,” she said. “I just felt like my team had my back and I could do it. It was my first regional final, obviously, but I think we did well and I was confident my team would have my back.”

While it wasn’t a perfect day offensively with Holba acknowledging the offense left some runs on the field, the Celtics did take advantage of enough opportunities to get the win. Ella Kucala scored thanks to a Marian fielding error in the bottom of the third inning with two outs just before Ava Misch scored Angelina Cole on a single.

Robbins kept the Spartans off the board until the sixth when Gracie Jensen’s RBI single scored Mya Davis to cut the deficit to one. While Abigail Gustavson hit a leadoff single in the seventh, Robbins closed the game with three consecutive strikeouts to send the Celtics to Ottawa.

“She rose to the occasion,” Holba said of Robbins. “She’s been doing that all year long. We’ve been trying to get her to work through things and match the competition. She just turned 15 yesterday and she’s been going up against 18-year-old girls all season. That helped prepare her for this moment.”

Robbins was quick to give credit to her defense, which committed just one error. The Spartans nearly had an additional run on the board early in the third, but a timely throw from Cole in the outfield Hill at shortstop to catcher Mia Sanfratello at home gave the Celtics a tight out.

“You always have to make sure you’re communicating with your outfielders,” Hill said. “It takes communication, good throws and good tags. We always practice cuts in pregame and we have to be ready in games like this.”

Hill and Cole were both effusive in their praise of Robbins, though all three of them echoed the same sentiment that Holba had after the game: The offense will need to be better if Providence’s postseason is to continue.

“We left a lot out there,” Holba said. “We definitely need to improve from today. We need to score more than two runs or we’ll put too much pressure on our pitchers and fielders. We definitely had some jitters today, but hopefully we got those out and we’ll be ready to go on Tuesday night.”

Tuesday night is when the Celtics will travel to Ottawa to face off against Tinley Park in the Class 3A Ottawa Sectional semifinals. A victory then would send the Celtics to the sectional final against the winner of Lemont and Ottawa.

“It’s going to take drive,” Cole said. “We can’t back down and have to have confidence in ourselves. We need to play at a higher level than the other team and keep on working.”

Tuesday’s game is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. with Lemont-Ottawa to follow.