CENTRALIA, Ill. • One swing of the bat was all Civic Memorial needed Thursday afternoon.
Mackenzie Satterfield hit a grand slam during a five-run third inning and Kayla Fitzpatrick tossed a one-hitter as the Eagles defeated Mattoon 7-0 in the semifinal of the Illinois Class 3A Centralia softball Sectional at Rotary Park.
Civic improved to 28-5 and will play Mount Vernon (23-4) at 11 a.m. Saturday for the sectional championship. The Eagles beat the Rams 4-1 on May 6. Mattoon ended the season at 30-3.
"It was great to hit a nice grand slam because I've never done it before," said Satterfield, who hit a 1-2 offering far over the left field fence from Green Wave lefthander Kacey Starwalt (21-3). "I just wanted to get it out of the infield and get some more RBIs and stuff. Anything that can get runs for my team is great."
When she hit it, Satterfield said wasn't sure the ball was going out.
"No not really," she recalled. "I knew it was pretty high and the fence was pretty short. I knew it could possibly be. It was nice knowing it when I got around the bases."
The slam put Civic in front 5-0 and it came after the Eagles had jumped to a 1-0 advantage.
Brittney Zipprich, the No. 9 hitter, dumped a single behind first base to lead off the frame. With one out, Georgia Dodson bunted back to Starwalt sacrificing Zipprich to second and she continued to third when Starwalt threw wildly to first. Dodson then stole second and Kirkpatrick walked to load the bases.
Allie Hill singled to right scoring Zipprich as the bases remained filled for Satterfield, who blasted her fifth homer of the season. She now has 36 RBIs.
That was all the runs the right-handed throwing Kirkpatrick (18-2) needed. She had a perfect game through 4 1/3 innings before Paige Royter doubled to right center in the bottom of the fifth on a 2-1 count. But Royter was stranded there as Starwalt and Riley Phipps both struck out swinging to end the inning. Kirkpatrick allowed the lone hit and one walk with 13 strikeouts from 107 pitches in throwing what she called "my first or second best game of the season."
"I came in with the attitude that I'm going to shut them down no matter what it takes," she said. "I got the job done. My pitches were working. I've been working for four straight days on movement. I was wanting to get them going and I finally got them going."
Civic added two more runs in the fifth when Dodson led off with a single to right. Rachel Keller then bunted back to Starwalt, who again threw wildly to first as Dodson ended up at third. Keller stole second and Kirkpatrick plated Dodson with a ground out to second with Keller advancing to third. Hill then singled home Keller.
"It was just a killing blow for the other team," Eagles coach Mike Eddy said of the slam. "It was just a matter of who was going to get on that (score) board quick and who's going to get on there strong. To jump from a 1-0 lead to a 5-0 lead, I think that sent a very strong message."
Said Mattoon coach Nikkie Trower: "I told the girls that if we can't do the little things correctly, it's going to kill us in the end. And it killed us in the end. It's unfortunate to end it the way we did."
