Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:11 PM CDT
No jinxes in way of Mattoon softball
By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
CENTRALIA -- The last time Lydia Hilgenberg talked to a reporter, she remembers, it was sleeting and she was in the midst of a serious hitting streak.
With fitting coincidence, it came to an end immediately thereafter.
“I was cursed,” said Hilgenberg, reluctantly agreeing to another interview Wednesday. “I’m still scared. I didn’t hit for a week after that at all.”
Whatever offensive struggles she underwent at the time – real or imaginary – they haven’t persisted. Mattoon’s softball team is getting ample production from its five seniors, Hilgenberg being one of them, as it opens sectional play. Its semifinal vs. Triad, originally scheduled to take place today, was moved to Friday at 4:30 p.m., the result of wet fields in Centralia.
Marion and Freeburg play the first semifinal today at 4:30 p.m.
Two of the Green Wave’s fourth-year players, Aubrey Frank and Jessica Nichols, are moving on to play softball in college, at Lake Land and Aurora University, respectively. Hilgenberg, who, along with Danielle Flowers, is to enroll at Lake Land, has expressed interest in walking on there. Makenzie Mann, headed to Illinois, is aware of a club softball team at the university that she wouldn’t mind being a part of.
“They won the World Series last year,” she said.
All five graduated from high school less than a week ago but aren’t complaining about one extracurricular activity that still squeezes their time. To become the second team in Mattoon history to reach 30 wins in a season they’ll need to reach the state tournament. That means two sectional wins and one more at the Mount Zion super-sectional before they can begin to think about East Peoria.
“We’d love to take it farther because we’re really trying to make a name for ourselves,” Mann said. “Last year they were expected to do well. We’ve really had to fight for people to say, ‘You know, they’re going to be a contender in the conference, they’re going to be a contender at sectional, they’re going to be a contender at state.’ I think we’ve done a good job proving ourselves.”
Frank and Nichols are three-year starters who had already taken on leading roles. Frank has mainly split the team’s 27 wins with sophomore Reynae Hutchinson and Nichols, a catcher, leads the team in homers (five) while being tied for the lead or near the top in doubles (11) and RBIs (26). Junior shortstop Sara Bradley and sophomore second baseman Michelle Glenn have served as the heart of the infield all year, while junior outfielder Jordan Miller (batting .418), sophomore outfielder Bailiegh Basham and freshman Paige Roytek have been knocking at the door.
None of the younger players, though, have prevented Hilgenberg, Mann or Flowers, newcomers to the starting lineup on a fulltime basis, from keeping their spots. All three have been among the leading hitters in the area, consistently above .300, and Flowers has added power at third base (four homers, 27 RBIs). As further evidence that Hilgenberg’s slump didn’t last, she was bumped to the leadoff spot before the postseason arrived.
“I always give my upperclassmen the first shot,” coach Dave McDowell said. “They’ve put in the time and years of hard work and preparation coming through the fresh-soph and JV teams and then getting exposure and opportunities to play at the varsity level. They have half a season. Right around 18 games you start seeing changes made. If you go back and you follow the statistics you’ll see year after year those are the things that I did. If you’re a senior and there’s a junior doing just as well, sorry, the junior’s going to step in. We have five seniors on this team and all five of those seniors are doing a great job.
“If you put all of the statistics together and you show a solid team it means that you don’t have to be the Lone Ranger every day. We don’t have a team that’s focused around one player. Some people say, ‘Well, we’re going to build around the pitcher.’ Obviously you need a pitcher and we’ve got three. I think all three are pretty fair. But we don’t have to put all our eggs in one basket.”
Nor is there a reason to think that Mattoon, now 27-5, doesn’t have as good a chance of making the state finals in Class 3A as it did as a AA team in the two-class system. The team has won 17 of its past 19 games and may just be achieving peak form.
“I think a lot more people are paying attention now,” Hilgenberg said.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
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