Seneca’s stellar season comes to end

Updated: May 30, 2011 8:00PM

Seneca was baffled by Boicken.

Momence senior Bailey Boicken fired a no-hitter as the Redskins rolled over Seneca 10-0 in five innings Monday in the Class 2A Coal City Sectional title game.

The sectional championship is the first in school history for Momence (25-7), which plays Lisle in the Seneca Supersectional at 4:30 today. Seneca finished its most successful season in school history at 30-9.

“It’s exciting. We made school history,” Boicken said. “My defense helps me a lot, because I know they can make the plays. It was great to jump out early, because we usually wait till later to score.”

Momence got all the momentum early, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs in the top of the first. Stacey Newberry scored the first two runs, doubling with the bases loaded, Mikayla Munyon had a two-run single and Danielle Anthony added a two-run double.

“We got off the bus and it was 6-0,” Seneca coach Dan Stecken said. “But they did a nice job hitting the ball and tip your cap to them. Their pitcher did a great job keeping us off balance.”

The stunned Irish couldn’t get much going against Boicken. They had two runners reach with two outs in the third. Madi Shanks (2 walks) drew a walk and Nicole Pihl reached on the Redskins’ only fielding error of the game to put runners at first and second. But Boicken got a grounder for a force at third to end the inning.

Shanks was the only other runner to reach, with a leadoff walk in the first. She went to second on an errant pickoff throw, but was stranded there. Boicken (20-7), a lefty, walked two and struck out three.

“We were looking to come out a little stronger than that,” Pihl said. “Even when we were down we figured we could come back. But she (Boicken) had a real good drop-ball. It would come in at the knees and just fall.

“When we did get to her, we hit it at them, and their hits found all the holes.”

Munyon (2-for-4, 3 RBI) added an RBI single in the fourth. The Redskins scored three unearned runs in the fifth. Anthony, who is 8-for-10 in the No. 9 spot the last three games, including 2-for-3 Monday, singled and later scored on a wild pitch. Jessica Spoon had an RBI groundout and Newberry (2-for-3, 3 RBI) capped the scoring with an RBI single.

Emily Mroczkowsil added two hits and a walk for the Redskins, who finished with 11 hits. Pihl (26-9), a right-hander, went the distance. She allowed six earned runs while walking four and striking out three.

The Irish wouldn’t have even been in the game if it weren’t for Pihl. Saturday, she hit a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to give Seneca a 6-5 semifinal win over Chicago Christian.

The homer not only put the Irish in the title game and gave them 30 wins for the first time in school history, it was a record-breaker for Pihl. It was her 19th homer of the season, breaking the state record of 18, set by Newton’s Becky Clark in 1982.

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