Lincoln-Way Central’s Bella Dimitrijevic almost perfect in 4A Lockport Sectional win over Lincoln-Way West

LOCKPORT – Bella Dimitrijevic has been nothing short of outstanding through her entire softball career for Lincoln-Way Central.

Tuesday, in a 5-0 win over Lincoln-Way West in a Class 4A Lockport Sectional semifinal, she may have been even better.

Dimitrijevic, a Florida State recruit and the reigning Gatorade Illinois Player of the Year, was almost perfect. In fact, through six innings, she was.

Exactly none of the first 18 Warriors to face Dimitrijevic reached base. She got Reese Rourke to fly out to left to start the seventh, making it 19 in a row, two short of a perfect game.

West’s Reese Forsythe broke up the perfect game and no-hitter with a clean single down the third base line, but it didn’t bother Dimitrijevic, who struck out the final two batters looking. She finished with a one-hitter and 16 strikeouts, reaching a three-ball count on only one hitter all day.

“I was close to [a perfect game] two years ago against this team,” Dimitrijevic said. “I was one batter away, and that batter hit a home run. I just went out there today and pounded the strike zone.”

That was an understatement, but Lincoln-Way West’s Abby Brueggmann pitched a fine game herself. The Knights scored in the bottom of the second when Mia Degliomini walked and stole second with one out. An out later, Carly Karales – the No. 8 hitter in the Knights’ lineup – delivered a single to left that scored Degliomini.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth. Ellie McLaughlin led off the inning with a double down the first base line. An out later, Dimitrijevic, who doubled off the left field fence in the first inning and sent a deep fly nearly to the fence in left in the third, was intentionally walked. Jaimee Bolduc followed with a double to left that scored McLaughlin and courtesy runner Bridget Barz for a 3-0 lead.

As if coming back from three runs down wasn’t going to be hard enough for West, Central’s Teagan Berkshire, the ninth hitter in the order, capped things off in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer to left, scoring Karales, who had been hit by a pitch.

The win moves the Knights into Friday’s championship game against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Lockport and Lincoln-Way East.

“I didn’t know if that ball was going to go out or not,” Berkshire said. “I thought I hit a kind of routine fly ball, but it kept carrying and it went out.

“I don’t mind batting ninth. My job is to get on base and turn the lineup over. And, when we score a run when Bella is pitching, we feel pretty comfortable. If we score three or five or however many, then we feel very comfortable. We all want to do our job. We have said that even it takes breaking an arm, we are going to go all out to win every game we can.”

Central coach Jeff Tarala had nothing but high praise for his team.

“Bella is locked in right now,” he said. “She’s a senior, she has all her accolades – all-state, Gatorade Player of the Year, all of that. She wants to finish this with her teammates and she is locked in.

“To me, the biggest at-bat of the game was the first one by Ellie McLaughlin. It ended up with a strikeout, but she saw nine pitches and fouled off some tough ones. That told everyone that we were here to play and we weren’t going to quit. Having Teagan Berkshire in the nine spot is huge for us. She is the fastest player on our team, so when she gets on ahead of the top of the order, we can do a lot. And when we score runs, Bella can just go out and pound the strike zone.”

Lincoln-Way West coach Heather Novak saw no shame in her team losing to Lincoln-Way Central.

“Bella is a tremendous pitcher,” she said. “We have seen her a lot over the last four years. We battled and battled, but one hit and no runs isn’t going to win any games.

“This team, from where we started to where we ended up, they improved so much. When we look to the future, the first eight hitters in our lineup were either juniors or sophomores. They will learn a lot from this experience, and we are excited to see them continue to develop at athletes.”