EAST PEORIA — Brimfield/Elmwood experienced a disappointing softball defeat for a second consecutive season.
The Indians lost 3-0 to No. 3 Seneca in the Class 2A East Peoria Supersectional on Monday, June 1. B/E had made it to the Elite Eight last season before losing in extra innings to eventual state champion Beecher.
Eighth-ranked Brimfield (29-6) had several chances to score, including two runners on in the bottom of the sixth. Brooke Allen led off the frame with a single, then went to second when Anja Nelson reached on a line drive single to left field.
But Seneca pitcher Hayden Pfeifer shut the door, getting a strikeout and a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
“We were starting to get on her a little bit,” Brimfield/Elmwood senior Sawyer Drury said, “and start to know her pattern and what she was trying to do. … I was hoping we would get something going.”
Pfeifer gave up a single to Reese Legaspi in the seventh, but was able to get a pair of strikeouts and a groundout, sending the Irish (38-2) to the program’s first-ever state finals.
“I basically just relied on my movement pitches,” Pfeifer, an Illinois State signee, said. “That’s always been kind of like my thing is just spin the ball, and I guess a lot of time that works.”
Pfeifer tossed the complete game shutout with 11 strikeouts, one walk and scattered four hits on 100 pitches.
“She was really good,” Brimfield/Elmwood coach Kurt Juerjens said of Pfeifer. “We tried to play the best competition we could all year. I’m not sure we saw a girl all year that had the spin that she threw and then threw balls that looked like strikes and strikes that looked like balls.
“I thought our at-bats got better as the game went on. We just couldn’t quite put them together to score.”
Seneca plated single runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings, taking advantage of five Brimfield/Elmwood errors in the game. Ameliah Weber went 3-for-4 with an RBI for half of the Irish’s hits.
Tessa Krull’s two-out, RBI-single in the fourth gave Seneca a two-run lead.
Drury, a Creighton signee, wrapped up her prep career with four strikeouts and one walk on 97 pitches in a complete game. Legaspi finished 2-for-4 with a double.
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Illinois State signee shuts out Brimfield/Elmwood in IHSA softball Elite Eight
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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