MONTICELLO – The Monticello Sages girls’ soccer team improved to 5-3-2 on the year with a 5-0 win over Springfield Southeast on Friday. Here is a recap of action from last week.
Soccer
Monticello’s Elle Bodznick contributed on four of the Sages’ five goals, scoring two and assisting on two others, in the shutout win against Springfield Southeast. Addison Finet added two goals for Monticello (5-3-2), and Margo Cassel also scored.
Monticello 0, St. Thomas More 0. Monticello goalkeeper Allison Nebelsick made four saves to preserve her clean sheet. St. Thomas More goalkeeper Maddy Swisher one-upped her with five saves for the same. And the Sages (4-3-2) and Sabers (4-4-1) turned Wednesday’s Illini Prairie Conference showdown into a draw.
Softball
Mt. Zion 15, Monticello 1. Isa Beery tagged two hits for the visiting Sages (3-3), but the Braves used a six-run second inning to pull away for a nonconference win.
Tri-Valley 10, Monticello 3. Despite two hits in four at-bats from Emma Stoerger and five innings of work from pitcher Reese Patton, the Sages (3-4) suffered a road loss in nonconference play after Tri-Valley collected 13 hits on the afternoon.
Illinois Valley Central 12, Monticello 2. Illinois Valley Central scored in every inning and had a 12-run advantage before Monticello got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday. It wasn’t enough, though, for the Sages (3-5) to avoid the run-shortened Illini Prairie Conference loss. Sadie Walsh had the only hit for Monticello.
Baseball
Monticello 10, Olympia 0. Colton Vance went 4 for 4 with two RBI as the host Sages (6-1) blitzed their former Illini Prairie Conference enemy in a six-inning win on Monday. Jack Buckalew was strong on the mound for Monticello, pitching three innings and allowing one hit against six strikeouts to earn the victory. Biniam Lienhart (two RBI), Buckalew and Jacob Trusner each batted two hits for the Sages.
Monticello 10, Illinois Valley Central 1. Monticello pushed its lead to seven runs before Illinois Valley Central pushed one run across in the top of the sixth inning on Saturday. The Sages answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth before a final half inning secured the Illini Prairie Conference victory. Jacob Trusner went 2 of 3 with a home run and three RBI for Monticello (7-1), and Spencer Mitze was 3 of 4 with a double and three RBI. Luke Teschke picked up the win after giving up one hit and striking out eight in five innings.
Track and field
Boys
At Rantoul. in boys’ track and field, Danville topped the team leaderboard in a five-squad meet at Roger Quinlan Track and Field Complex, tallying 172 points to defeat Monticello (147 1/2), Urbana (145), St. Joseph-Ogden (121 1/2) and Rantoul (85) on Tuesday. Monticello’s Mick Wright took down the 400 dash (54.87) and ran on a first-place 400 relay foursome (45.95), while fellow Sages Charlie Dill, Ayden LeGrande and Rylan Goode each ran on two winning relay tandems — in the 400 relay, 1,600 relay (3 minutes, 43.18 seconds) or 3,200 relay (8:49.86).
Girls
At Rantoul. Danville prevailed in the team standings during a five-squad event at Roger Quinlan Track and Field Complex, scoring 214 points to Monticello’s 144, Urbana’s 132, Rantoul’s 80 and St. Joseph-Ogden’s 32. Monticello’s Mabry Bruhn won both the 400 dash (1:03.93) and the 800 run (2:24.53) on top of running for a first-place 1,600 relay foursome (4:15.75).
Piatt County
Baseball
Tri-County 16, Blue Ridge 1. Caleb Brown drove in three runs, Caden Logan and Jackson Ehlers each potted two RBI and the host Titans (1-1) bagged their first win of the season by topping the Knights (0-3) in five innings of LPC action.
Villa Grove 20, Cerro Gordo/Bement 5. Sam Bender was a force for the visiting Blue Devils (3-3), powering them past the Broncos (0-4) in LPC play. Brody Somers‘ two RBI and Brayden Strack‘s two hits and two runs led CG/B.
Le Roy 20, Blue Ridge 1. Noah Company bashed four hits and drove in four runs as the visiting Panthers (1-2-1) gained their first win of the season by overwhelming the Knights (0-4) in non-league action on Tuesday.
Okaw Valley 22, Cerro Gordo/Bement 1. Cerro Gordo Bement trailed by just a single run after one inning, but a 13-run top of the second from Okaw Valley turned an early close game into a blowout Friday in LPC action. Tyson Moore scored the only run for the Broncos (0-5), and Brayden Strack took the loss for CG/B after giving up just two earned runs on seven hits and three walks on Friday.
Le Roy 13-13, Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond 6-3. Le Roy scored 12 of its 13 runs in its last three innings to pull off a comeback victory in Saturday’s first game against ALAH and went the opposite route with seven runs in the first inning of its game two win. Clay Seal doubled twice and drove in two runs for the Knights (3-5).
Softball
Blue Ridge 6, Cerro Gordo/Bement/Decatur Lutheran 4. Trailing 4-1 through 4 1/2 innings, the host Knights (2-5) rattled off five runs in the bottom of the fifth to pick up their second consecutive win on Monday, this one over the Broncos (0-5) in LPC action. Cassie Zimmerman tripled, doubled, drove in two runs and scored once for Blue Ridge to go with Ellie Schlieper‘s two RBI and Alexis Wike‘s three hits. Schlieper struck out nine batters in a complete-game pitching showing, too. Reese Peters (3 for 3, one RBI, one run) excelled for CG/B/DL at the plate.
Tuesday
Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond 16, Champaign Central 6. Charley and Mackenzie Condill collected four hits apiece and Kailee Otto added three hits in a decisive victory for the Knights (4-1) in nonconference play. Charley Condill and Otto both homered in the triumph, while Madison Schweighart twirled six innings of 11-hit ball in the circle.
Blue Ridge 13, Tri-County 5. Carsyn Stiger’s four-hit day helped send Blue Ridge past Tri-County in Lincoln Prairie Conference play Friday afternoon. Stiger singled in the first and second innings and doubled in the fourth and seventh. Cassie Zimmerman’s grand slam in the second helped the Knights (2-6) put the game out of reach, and Ellie Schlieper got the win after giving up five runs on five hits while striking out 15.
Blue Ridge 8, Georgetown-Ridge Farm 5. An RBI single from Blue Ridge’s Alexis Wike broke up a tied game in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Knights added two more insurance runs to beat Georgetown-Ridge Farm in nonconference action Saturday. Wike and Carsyn Stiger had three hits apiece to lead Blue Ridge (4-5) and made a winner out of Ellie Schlieper who struck out 15 in her complete-game victory. J’lynn Waltz went 2 of 4 at the plate to pace the Buffaloes (0-4).
Hoopeston Area 20, Cerro Gordo/Bement/Decatur Lutheran 2. Hoopeston Area’s Macy Warner was just a home run short of the cycle to propel the Cornjerkers to a Saturday blowout against Cerro Gordo/Bement/Decatur Lutheran.
Le Roy 20, Cerro Gordo/Bement/Decatur Lutheran 1. Le Roy ultimately didn’t need any more runs after its four-run effort in the bottom of the first inning against Cerro Gordo/Bement/Decatur Lutheran, but three more runs in the second and 13 in the third turned Saturday’s game into a rout. Maddie Gant was 1 of 2 with an RBI to lead the Broncos (0-9).
Track and field
Boys
At Arthur. Host Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond placed first at the four-team meet the Knights hosted, recording 72 points to outdistance themselves from runner-up Neoga (39), Blue Ridge (36 1/2) and Tri-County (34 1/2) on Tuesday. Cruz Hale won the 800-meter run (2 minutes, 21.2 seconds) and the 1,600 (5:15.1), while teammate Landon Waldrop won the 110 hurdles (16.3) and the triple jump (39 feet, 11 1/4 inches) to pace ALAH. Cole Pemble won the 100 (11.7) and the long jump (19-1 1/4) to lead Blue Ridge.
At Arthur. Tuscola won three of four relays and had a pair of 1-2 finishes in the distance races to place second at the ALAH Invitational behind team champion Decatur St. Teresa.
Girls track and field
At Arthur. Blue Ridge took first place in a quadrangular meet behind banner performances from Alexis Wike and Phoebe Reynolds, registering 79 points to just clip runner-up Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond as ALAH finished with 75 points. Wike won the 100-meter dash (13.4 seconds), 200 (28.8), 400 (1:06.2) and the high jump (4 feet, 7 3/4 inches), while Reynolds won the 100 hurdles (19.4), the long jump (13-2 1/4) and the triple jump (27-21/2) to carry Blue Ridge. Emma Edwards won the 300 hurdles (58.2) for ALAH and ran legs on ALAH’s 800 relay team (1:55.9) and 1,600 relay team (4:47.71) that placed first. Josie Carillo, Skyler Graham, Ruby Burton and Gracie Romine also contributed to those winning ALAH relays.
At Arthur. Tuscola’s Lia Patterson won four individual events to lead the Warriors to a team win in Saturday’s ALAH Invitational. Cerro Gordo/Bement finished second as a team, and Jazzi Hicks won the shot put for the Broncos with a throw of 38 feet, 9 3/4 inches.