CHAMPIONS — The Weir High softball team celebrates winning the OVAC Class 4A championship with a 4-1 victory over Indian Creek Friday at the I-470 Complex. – Nick Henthorn
ELM GROVE — The No. 4 Weir Red Riders and No. 2 Indian Creek Redskins both started out slow Friday in their OVAC Tom Bechtel Class 4A softball championship, but the Riders were able to unhitch the wagon first, scoring four runs through six innings before Creek could muster any offense, and securing the gold in a 4-1 victory.
It was Weir’s first OVAC championship since the conference adopted a tournament format, and one that the Riders were eager to attain.
“It’s very gratifying,” Weir head coach John Leary said. “I started coaching softball here with Frank Sissini, he took the program over in 2016, and he was here until he became the head football coach. I’ve been the head coach since 2021, and we’ve made it here in 2022, we lost to Oak Glen, I made it here back when I coached Brooke 20 years ago, so I was 0-2, two of my assistants were 0-1, I kept saying “third time’s the charm.”
Rayna Hoover smashed a solo homer for Weir, finishing with a pair of RBI, and Eliza Utt pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts, holding Creek off the scoreboard until the seventh.
Heading into the seventh with a 4-0 lead, Weir ran into some trouble, Creek’s Trinity Taylor crossing the plate on Emma Vok’s double over the center fielder’s head, and getting two on with two out, but the rally was stopped well short.
“A lot of people contributed to this today,” Leary said. “Our pitcher did an outstanding job against a team with a very potent lineup. Rayna has been carrying us- the semifinals, she cracked a home run, today that was a big momentum shift, jumping on a pitch and getting us on the board.”
The Red Riders got through the seventh inning despite some bumpy riding, giving up a couple hits and almost botching a pop-up in the infield with runners on the corners and one out- Weir dropped the high infield fly, but recovered with a throw to second base for a forceout and an identical outcome as if they’d caught the ball.
“And we made the plays in the field, even in the end after we made a mistake, we were heads-up enough to be able to throw and get the force and not panic,” Leary said. “Just a good group of kids who get along with each other, pull for each other, and usually that’s how good teams are.”
Defense reigned supreme through the first three innings, Creek’s Riley Sadler throwing out a would-be base stealer to extinguish the only scoring threat of the early innings.
The makeup of the game changed on a 1-0 pitch to Hoover in the fourth, the Weir shortstop sending a deep fly to left center to break the scoreless tie.
The Red Riders scored a second run in the fourth, Elle Maley driving in Kylie Dean on a base hit.
Hoover launched a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 3-0.
Indian Creek’s defense shone through again to end that inning, Creek third baseman Kylie Dray catching a pop up on the run and making a heads up throw to double up the runner retreating back to third base.
Dean scored again in the sixth, coming home on an RBI groundout by Bella Weber.
“It’s more relief than anything, because I was hoping we wouldn’t get here this time and come away empty-handed,” Leary said. “I told the girls right before we went to bat, my exact quote was “I don’t want to be walking out of here with that darn runner-up trophy. I’ve done that already and I don’t want to do it again.” I’m just very proud of them and their effort. It’s a big step for our program and it’s from all the hard work everybody’s put in.”
OVAC Class 4A Championship
Weir High 4, Indian Creek 1
Weir 000 211 0 – 4 5 1
Creek 000 000 1 – 1 5 5
W-Utt wp (8K, 1BB) and Barton; Dean T; Hoover HR, 2rbi; Weber rbi; Maley rbi.
IC-Taylor lp (8K, 1BB) and Sadler; Dray D; Vok D, rbi; Sadler S.
