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May 29, 2009

2A SOFTBALL: Clarksville tops Pekin for sectional crown

By MIKE HUTSELL

CLARKSVILLE — If you had taken a quick exit poll of every Clarksville softball player on Thursday after the Class 2A softball sectional final, the result would have been a landslide.

While no General could say they expected to see their team come away with a sectional title in such a lopsided fashion, each of them enjoyed every last second of their 9-0 win over Pekin Eastern at Tim Hauber Field.

“Never would have thought it would be like that,” said junior shortstop Taylor Carta. “We love it though. We’re so happy to bring the sectional back.”

The Generals dominated from the start as they cruised to their first sectional title since the 2004 season, blowing open what was expected to be a tight contest with three runs in the first inning and pouring it on the rest of the way.

“We played real well,” said Clarksville coach Tim Hauber. “In the back of my mind I would have never said this is what would happen, but as a coach it’s what you would want to see happen.

“We’ve said to the girls since the tournament started that to expect to win you have to play the better game and they listened. They did it all today: They hit it, they fielded it and our pitcher had a heck of a day.”

Junior hurler Amber Wingler saved her finest postseason performance for the finale, as she allowed only two hits and struck out 11, including the side in the bottom of the seventh inning of the victory.

“I think the most exciting moment was catching that last strike,” said Clarksville senior catcher Kelsey Becker. “I knew it was a strike, I knew we had won and Amber just was awesome all day.”

If Wingler was “awesome” the description of her teammates’ performance would had to have been pretty close to perfect.

Defensively, the Generals played error-free for the entire game and the offense was just as efficient — clubbing 11 hits total paced by a pair of three-hit efforts from sophomore Bronte Miley and senior Kelly Betz.

“I hadn’t done it all year but I finally started hitting,” said Betz, who also provided the game-winning single on Tuesday in Clarksville’s semifinal win over Brownstown. “This is great. Kelsey Becker and I, we wanted to win this in our last crack at it. We knew this was pretty much it.”

Seven of Clarksville’s nine starters had at least one hit. Betz drove in two runs while going 3-for-3. Miley had three runs and Alex Conklin finished with two singles and an RBI. Erica Martin had Clarksville’s lone extra-base hit with a double.

“Once Amber settled in about the third inning or so, we were cruising,” said Hauber. “When our defense is playing like they were today, it makes life pretty easy for our pitcher.”

The win exorcised a few demons for the Generals as well. The last time the two sides played a postseason contest at Hauber Field, the Musketeers handed Clarksville a 15-3 loss in the 2007 sectional championship — the worst loss in Hauber’s tenure as coach.

“A couple of years ago when we played them at sectional, they just beat us up” Becker said. “We talked a little about revenge, but we were just wanting the win — we didn’t care what the score ended up.”

Clarksville will now play in the Forest Park Regional on Saturday against either Tell City or North Posey — who will meet today in the finals of the Forest Park Sectional.

“I hope they enjoy winning it today, but I also hope they all understand we’ll be back at work as soon as we can getting ready for that next one,” said Hauber, who led Clarksville to regional titles in 2002 and 2004. “We’ll start getting ready as soon as we can and see what we can do from here.”



CLASS 2A CLARKSVILLE

SECTIONAL

FINAL

CLARKSVILLE 313 101 0—9 11 0

PEKIN EAST. 000 000 0—0 2 5

W — Wingler. L — Hornung. 2B — Collard (P), Martin (C).

Record — Clarksville 20-6

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