Mahomet-Seymour’s fourth-place finish best in school history
By FRED KRONER
Years from now, when the conversation ball gets tossed to the subject of high school sports in 2022, a prominent topic will be the Mahomet-Seymour softball team.
That is the history-making and record-setting 2022 Bulldog softball team.
It’s the one that elevated a program which had never won as much as one game at the sectional level into state contenders in Class 3A.
M-S carted home its first-ever piece of IHSA hardware in softball on Saturday (June 11) after placing fourth in the state finals at Peoria. The Bulldogs dropped a 1-0 decision to Antioch in the third-place game at Peoria.
“Karley (Yergler) pitched lights out and our defense made some great outs to keep us within striking distance,” M-S first-year head coach James Heinold said. “I’m so excited to see what they accomplished this season.”
Antioch, which was held to three singles by Yergler (23-4), pushed across the game’s lone run in the third inning. Yergler walked four and struck out nine.
The M-S offense, which was held scoreless in two games at state, produced just one base runner. For the second game in a row, the lone Bulldog hit was a single by freshman Madi White, the only left-handed hitter in the M-S lineup.
“She has been battling well at the plate,” Heinold said. “She has a small strike zone (standing in at 5 feet tall), has a good eye and puts the bat on the ball. She has been a great addition to our lineup.”
White’s hit – which ruined a perfect-game bid by sophomore right-hander Jacey Schuler (20-3) – came with two outs in the sixth inning. Schuler, who knocked in the game’s only run, struck out 11 Bulldogs.
From the super-sectional on, White batted .429.
“We were much more disciplined (than in the semifinals),” Heinold said. “She was throwing pitches outside and getting strike calls.
“It was a tough game. Our pitching was great. The defense was great. We just couldn’t gain any traction offensively.”
The state outcome was not what was envisioned 48 hours earlier, but the season was more than one weekend, and out of the 606 Illinois high schools which offered softball this spring and competed in one of the four state classifications, M-S finished among the top 2 ½ percent overall.
Antioch ends the season with a 30-4 record.
M-S concludes its best softball season in school history with a 27-7 mark. The previous record for single-season wins was 23.
The Bulldogs’ 16-player tournament roster featured six seniors, five juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen.
The seniors were Abbey Akers, Jayden Hannah, Jessica Hawk, Jami Marriott, Chloe Truax and Karley Yergler.
The juniors were Kenadi Granadino, Brooke Howard, Kayla McKinney, Jenna Wade and Sydney Ward.
The sophomores were Maddie Cortez and Ava Henderson.
The freshmen were Rio Casillas, Maddie Logsdon and Madi White.
This season, the Bulldogs finished with six players sporting final batting averages above .300. They were: Yergler (.467), Howard (.463), Logsdon (.429), Cortez (.354), Akers (.353) and Granadino (.319).
Cortez had a team-high 12 steals and Akers led with 11 doubles.
Yergler, who swatted a team-high three triples this year, rewrote a large portion of the M-S softball record book.
Among her marks – all established as a senior – are season strikeouts (371), games reaching double figures in strikeouts (20), season innings pitched (183 1/3), season earned run average (0.61), season wins (23), season strikeouts-to-walks ratio (12.4 to 1) and season home runs (17).
She ended second in the all-time record book for season runs batted in (50) and third in season runs scored (45). Yergler set one school mark as a junior in 2021 for season batting average (.538).
In her career, Yergler wound up first in home runs (34), first in earned run average (0.90), second in strikeouts (553), second in runs scored (104), tied for second in wins (34) and third in runs batted in (105).
With six returning starters (catcher Granadino, third baseman Logsdon, shortstop Cortez, second baseman White, left fielder Ward and designated hitter Wade), the Bulldogs have a good nucleus for next season, though Heinold cautioned, “there’s work to be done in the off-season.”
Among the Bulldogs’ top pitching prospects for the 2023 season are Henderson and Taylor Fulk, both of whom are incoming juniors.
In Saturday’s Class 3A title game, Lemont shut out Chicago St. Ignatius, 1-0. St. Ignatius defeated M-S in the semifinals, 3-0.
