By Dave Kane
The Auburn-Lutheran-Calvary co-op softball team has most of the same key performers who were there last season when the Trojans made their first-ever run to the Class 2A state final four.
So, with regional play beginning next week and seniors like pitching ace Meena Taylor, catcher Piper Taylor, first baseman Addison Wheatley and second baseman Taylor Patterson ready to go, who would bet against the Trojans making another trip to state?
Well, Auburn head coach Ryan Patterson knows he has an experienced, battle-tested team that thrives on competition.
But walking the postseason tightrope is tricky. Several of the Trojans’ postseason tests last year could have gone the other way. Plus, Auburn is in a true “quality over quantity” situation when it comes to numbers.
With a roster ranging from just nine to 11 players depending on injuries and multi-sport commitments, staying healthy is an absolute priority.
“It’s been a big deal all season,” Patterson said of avoiding injuries. “We can’t afford to lose many girls at all. It makes our practices a little light; there’s some drills we’re not able to do.
“But we have older girls who know what it takes to get ready.”
Auburn is 20-5 overall and 6-1 in the Sangamo Conference heading into the league finale at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pleasant Plains. It’s the completion of a game that was suspended by rain earlier in the season, when the score was 1-1 when play was stopped after one inning.
Plains also is 6-1 in the league. The Plains-Auburn winner will get a share of the Sangamo title with Stanford Olympia, which finished 7-1 in the conference.
After Tuesday’s game at Plains, Auburn finishes the regular season at home Thursday against always-tough Tri-City/Sangamon Valley/Mount Pulaski.
Then comes the Class 2A Auburn Regional May 19-24. The Trojans are seeded first in 10-team sub-sectional A of the Macomb Sectional. Also at the Auburn Regional will be No. 4 Carlinville and No. 6 Sacred Heart-Griffin, who meet in a semifinal on May 21.
Auburn edged Carlinville 1-0 in late March and topped SHG 5-1 in mid-April. The Trojans also edged Carlinville 1-0 for the regional championship last year.
The Auburn Regional winner heads to Macomb for a potential sectional semifinal against Olympia (14-7), a 3-1 winner over Auburn in late April. The Macomb Sectional’s scheduled for May 27-30.
The Trojans last year held off Olympia, and Illinois-bound senior pitcher Danika Frazier, 4-3 in extra innings for the Williamsville Sectional title. Meena Taylor posted 16 strikeouts and hit the game-winning home run.
But Auburn almost didn’t make it to the sectional final. The Trojans had to work more extra innings before pulling away from Tremont by a somewhat deceiving 10-4 score.
“We looked dead,” Patterson said of the Tremont game. “But then our first baseman, (then-senior) Mailee Schoen, hit a home run and then we scored a few more after that.
“We’ve played in a lot of those games, both last year and this year. The girls have faced great pitching. And with Meena, when the games are bigger, she rises to the occasion.”
Entering this week, Meena Taylor was 18-3 with a 0.89 earned-run average. She also was batting .465 with 18 runs batted in.
Her batterymate and twin sister, Piper Taylor, was batting .397. Taylor Patterson was at .395, and Wheatley .388 with two home runs and a team-high 23 RBIs.
The Taylor twins will play college softball at Jefferson College, a Division I junior college in Hillsboro, Missouri. Taylor Patterson will play at the University of Illinois Springfield, while Wheatley will play at Lincoln Land.
Some of Auburn’s younger players have pitched in, too. Sophomore third baseman Addison Jones was batting .424 with a team-best 11 stolen bases, and sophomore shortstop Skylar Meats was at .294.
There are four players from Lutheran and, for the first time for this co-op, one player from Calvary: freshman Keely Boyle. But Boyle has been out of action recently due to injury; Coach Patterson hopes she’s back for the postseason.
Another freshman, Jenna Arenz, plays the outfield but also competes in track for Auburn. The coach hopes she can be back for the duration of softball after state track concludes on May 22 or 24.
The low number of players — for Auburn and others — puzzles Coach Patterson. He said even unbeaten Class 1A Carrollton, which topped Auburn 6-0 last Friday, had just nine players available that day.
Even some bigger schools have problems. Springfield High, Southeast and Lanphier decided to co-op this season, even though it pushes the SHS co-op to Class 4A for postseason.
Auburn topped SHS 4-0 on April 21.
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” said the Auburn coach. “Softball is not a dying sport. You watch college softball and competitive ball in the summer, the game’s more popular than ever. I’m not sure if it’s travel ball or what; maybe kids won’t want to compete for positions.
“But (the shortage) isn’t just in softball here. (Auburn) has three spring sports for girls, and Seth McCoy, our athletic director, said only 25 percent of girls in the school are playing a spring sport.”
Coach Patterson would definitely like to have more players, but he’ll take the ones he has.
“We know other teams want to get us,” he said of high expectations for the Trojans this season. “We have a little bullseye on our backs. But the girls thrive on it. They’re ready for every game. They don’t change.
“We’ve been doing all we can to get ready for postseason. You have to be good and a little lucky too. You have to keep your composure.”
And stay healthy.
