LOMIRA – Haleigh Caspary looked at her teammates and motioned to stay calm and relax.
The motion and poise followed a hit given up by the Lomira pitcher in the top of the seventh inning of a sectional championship game as the Lions held a 1-0 lead.
“Just calm down, calm down, we’re good,” Caspary said. “I knew we had it, I knew we were going to do it.”
After allowing the hit Caspary was lights out with back-to-back strikeouts and the third and final out was a ground out. Celebration ensued as Lomira defeated Laconia 1-0 in the Division 3, sectional semifinal game.
Lomira and Laconia have gotten used to seeing each other in the playoffs over the past three seasons. In 2023, Lomira defeated Laconia in regionals. Laconia followed that up with back-to-back wins over Lomira in the playoffs. Then on Tuesday, June 2, Lomira snapped that losing streak with its third win of the season over Laconia.
“They’re a good team. They have good pitching, they’ve got good hitters. So, the fact that we just battled and kept trying and kept talking and kept fighting is all I can ask for,” Lomira head coach Stacey Clark said.
Lomira got on the board in the bottom of the first inning with a Lilian Christian, RBI single. At the time it appeared to be the first of a handful of runs for both sides but proved to be the deciding score.
“I would not have guessed that we score in the first and don’t score again,” Clark said. “Give credit to Laconia, they really fought back and shut our offense down. So just happy that we fought.”
In the innings that followed, Laconia pitcher Lily Schultz and Caspary went toe-to-toe from the circle. They each brought their best game, playing their best card with each pitch thrown. Together, Caspary and Schultz allowed a combined six hits at three a piece.
Schultz finished the game with 10 strikeouts and allowed just one run in six innings pitched. Caspary finished with 12 strikeouts across seven innings, including two in the top of the seventh.
“She’s just locked in,” Clark said. “It’s a tough team, we’ve seen them a lot. So she kind of knows what she wants to do with the ball and she’s taking her time and making her stuff work.”
Laconia’s best chance of scoring came in the top of the sixth inning. The Spartans had runners on first and second when Kaylin Lemke hit a fly ball to right-center field that was snagged by freshman Tori Thomas.
“I thought that that was going to be down. I really felt like we were going to tie the game there, for sure tie it depending on how far it would have rolled,” Laconia head coach Scott Ritzema said. “Center fielder made a great catch on that.”
With the loss, Laconia finished the season with a 19-5 record, and the career of seniors Aubrey Maurer, Kaelyn Lichtenwald, Anya Kopf, Kaylin Lemke, Abigail Lovejoy and Allison Wiercinski came to a close.
“I couldn’t be prouder of all our seniors. Each one of them played such a great role,” Ritzema said.
With the win, Lomira advanced to the sectional championship and is one win away from making its first state appearance since 2021. Lomira, a No. 1 seed, will play No. 2 seed Chilton at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 4 at Taylor Park in Rosendale.
“That fight and that grittiness and those deep breaths,” Clark said on what it will take to win.
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Lomira softball shuts out Laconia in sectional semifinal win
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
