Effingham Secures First-Ever Softball Regional in 1-0 Triumph

Over the years, Effingham High School has had plenty of talented softball teams … but none have ever been able to advance in the postseason.

Until now.

Coach Jerry Trigg and the Lady Hearts are headed to sectional play after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Clinton in the Class 3A Rantoul Regional. EHS scored its lone run in the top of the fourth inning and Aly Armstrong struck out 10 in a complete game shutout to secure the program’s first-ever regional title.

Alissa Kersey’s RBI double plated the go-ahead tally; Jenna Wright had gotten the fourth started with a base hit and moved to second on Skyler Schafer’s sacrifice bunt. Clinton mounted a couple substantial threats, loading the bases in both the fourth and seventh innings.

Armstrong hung tough, though, and improved the Lady Hearts to 24-6; she allowed just three hits and walked a pair. Karsyn Faraday and Kersey each had two-hit games for EHS, accounting for four of the team’s five hits.

Trig, in his 19th year coaching Effingham, will lead his Lady Hearts on to the Mattoon Regional, where they’ll face a Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin they edged earlier this season by another 1-0 final. That sectional semifinal is slated for Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. The other semifinal pits Mattoon against Chatham-Glenwood.

Other Area Results

In a Class 1A sectional final moved from Altamont to St. Anthony High School’s Bulldog Field because of wet grounds at Gilbert Park, Casey-Westfield dismantled Raymond-Lincolnwood, the team that eliminated St. Anthony in Tuesday’s semifinals, by a 16-0 final in five innings.

Class 2A competition saw Flora’s season end at the hands of Tuscola in a 12-0 contest. Mattoon had little trouble dispatching Charleston 16-4 on the 3A side; the Lady Wave scored 13 of those runs in the first inning. Also in 3A, Taylorville’s season ended in a 5-2 loss to Chatham-Glenwood.

CLASS 3A RANTOUL REGIONAL
Championship