Marengo, Montgomery reach 3A final

Updated: June 10, 2011 7:20PM

EAST PEORIA — Chloe Montgomery said the thought never entered her mind.

“I can’t think about stuff like that,” the senior Marengo southpaw said. “I just go out there and get outs.”

Montgomery was denied her no-hit bid with one out in the seventh inning. It proved a minor blip in a superb performance.

The Indians ace went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs and struck out eight and allowed a lone bloop single as Marengo defeated Civic Memorial 7-0 in a Class 3A semifinal Friday afternoon at the EastSide Centre.

“I was just working my pitches,” Montgomery said.

Her all-around effort propelled the Indians (32-9) to their first softball state championship game appearance on Saturday afternoon against LaSalle-Peru.

Montgomery allowed four base runners as she improved to 25-6.

“This is what we’ve always wanted,” Montgomery said. “Today, I had a lot of great defense to back me up.”

Montgomery was so dominant that McKenzie Satterfield’s soft shot into left-center with one out in the top of the seventh was the only ball the Eagles (30-6) hit out of the infield.

Montgomery also provided the Indians the only run they required in the first inning. She blasted a hard shot off Civic Memorial starter Kayla Kirkpatrick into right-center with two outs that scored centerfielder Stephanie Cartwright, who singled and stole second.

“She threw it out on the side and I just reached out and went with it,” Montgomery said.

The key play occurred from speedy right fielder Reed Karsten. With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Karsten hit a slow roller to short that she narrowly beat out. The play not only scored a run, it extended the inning that and swelled to a five-run, five-hit inning that put the game away.

“I knew that if I got it to that side of the field, I could probably beat it out,” she said.

Cartwright (2-for-3) followed with a two-run double. Montgomery finished the barrage with a sharp run-scoring single into left field. Alysa Grude, the hero of the Monday supersectional victory with a walk-off homer, punctuated the victory with a bomb over the centerfield wall in the third inning.

“It felt so good,” Grude said. She hits seventh in the team’s unorthodox lineup that features four left-handers out of the first five hitters. “In the beginning of the season, I wasn’t hitting that well but now I’m starting to come along. This game showed we have a lot of great hitters.”

Montgomery is the team’s centerpiece. Ever since she out dueled Antioch ace Olivia Duehr in the sectional semifinals, Marengo has been on a tear. “They beat us last year, they finished third [in Class 3A] and I think most people thought we’d be back here, but we beat them and it was a huge confidence boost,” she said.

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