Olympia survives late St. Bede charge, wins 3rd straight Regional

The Olympia players and coaches pose for a team picture after their Regional Championship win over St. Bede Academy on Friday afternoon. PHOTO / ALEX STAAB

 Stanford, Ill. - A battle of state finalists on Friday at Olympia High School, as the hosts and #3-ranked Spartans (18-3) were matched up against the Bruins of St. Bede Academy (12-7-2), with the Spartans taking 4th in 2A and the Bruins 3rd in 1A during the 2019 state tournament. 

Despite the go-ahead run for the Bruins on base at the time of the final out, freshman Danika Frazier and the Olympia defense came up big and their four-run fourth inning held up for a 4-2 Spartans win and a regional championship. 

Right away, it looked like St. Bede was ready to go, with Addie Bontz leading off the game with a single. Then Frazier started her run of dominance. Through the third inning, she had retired nine consecutive Bruin batters, including seven strikeouts. 

With St. Bede's Payge Pyszka engaging in a pitcher's duel with Frazier, it took until the bottom of the third for a baserunner other than Bontz's single. Olympia began to make things interesting, with freshman Jordyn Turner reaching on an E4 and seniors Chloe Scroggins and Kat Springer both drawing walks. However, nothing came of that, as a groundout kept everyone where they were at, and the score at 0-0. 

Olympia head coach Courtney Hoffman said it was a bit of a domino effect for her team, going scoreless for the first three innings.

"With our team, for whatever reason, we all do what the other's doing. If one person's not hitting, then nobody's hitting. But we knew if we had that one person that could break us out, then we'd start going."

In a best-case scenario, Frazier responded with a 1-2-3 inning in the circle to set the table for what turned out to be quite the wild bottom of the 4th. Four straight Spartans reached on an error, single, fielder's choice, and walk. 

After two quick outs, the lineup turned over to Scroggins. The future Southern Illinois Saluki would ground a ball right at the first base bag, and it appeared to hit the white portion of the base and head further down the right field foul line, thus a fair ball. Two runs crossed the plate, and Olympia was up 3-0. Hold on just a minute. The Bruins were quite displeased with the call, enough to convince the umpires to convene. The call ended up reversed and ruled a foul ball. Scroggins then lined a single off the base umpire, scoring a run. In fact, by inning's end, it was 4-0 Spartans instead of 3-0, so perhaps a "profit" of one run.

On top of brining the full lineup to the plate in that fourth, Danika Frazier went right back out to the circle and threw a 1-2-3 inning. 

The Spartans would only get two to reach base after that marathon inning. That opened the door for St. Bede into their last chance at the top of the 7th. Single, sacrifice, hit by pitch, single. A perfect start for the Bruins. 

Enter Addie Lee, the senior left fielder who prior to her seventh-inning at bat, had struck out and popped out. With her career's end potentially two outs away, she found the right spot and got a two-run single and got it within 4-2. 

Unfortunately for both Lee and the Bruins, that was all. Claire Morrow was hit by a pitch, but then a fielder's choice ended the ballgame at the 4-2 final score.

Coach Hoffman was quite pleased with how the young Frazier was able to shut the door despite the late run by the Bruins.

"As a freshman coming into these situations, she's just got to grow up a little bit, and she did that." 

Frazier acknowledged that although she may not be thinking about it as the game's progressing, outings like today's 4-hit, 12 strikeout game and Thursday's no-hit, 8-strikeout game really help in the bigger picture.

"I think it was a great experience for mental toughness. Just to be able to prepare myself for the rest of the postseason. It helps when you have a great defense behind you."

She notes that as good of outings as she's had to open up the postseason, there's an awfully good seven players behind her helping out, as well as Bri Morrow behind the plate.

"It does a lot. I know I'm not expected to strike everyone out. I know they've got my back as long as it's playable."

12 strikeouts in 21 outs is quality pitching, for sure. Yet Frazier knows it doesn't necessarily need to always be that kind of stat line, but when it's there, she'll do it.

"I just go into it as what I need to do for our team to come out on top. If that means striking people out, okay."

Olympia advances to its third consecutive Sectional Semifinal, where they will host the Boilermakers of Kewanee on Tuesday, June 8th, at 4:30pm. 

Olympia Batting:

Chloe Scroggins - Walk, RBI Single, Single

Kat Springer - Walk, Reached on Error

Casey Wissmiller - Reached on Error

Danika Frazier - Single

Mariah Maris - Reached on Fielder's Choice, Single

Bri Morrow - Walk

Jordyn Turner - Reached on Error

Olympia Pitching:

Danika Frazier - 7 innings, 96 pitches, 4 hits, 2 runs, 0 walks, 12 strikeouts

St. Bede Batting:

Addie Bontz - Single

Reagan Stoudt - Single

Ryann Stoudt - Sacrifice

Marissa Boehm - Reached on Hit by Pitch

Bella Pinter - Single

Addie Lee - 2-RBI single

Claire Morrow - Reached on Hit by Pitch

St. Bede Pitching:

Pyszka - 6 innings, 106 pitches, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts

Sectional 3 - Regional Championships:

(1) Rockridge def. (4) Sherrard, 10-0

(2) Tremont def. (6) Illinois Valley Central, 3-2

(1) Olympia def. (5) St. Bede Academy, 4-2

(2) Kewanee def. (6) Monmouth-Roseville, 12-2

Sectional 3 - Sectional Semifinals:

Tuesday, June 8th - (2) Tremont at (1) Rockridge - 4:30pm

Tuesday, June 8th - (2) Kewanee at (1) Olympia - 4:30pm