Central Illinois team qualifies for SLS World Series

For the third time in four games, Mia Volpert led the Tri-County Senior League softball team to a victory in the Senior League Softball Central Region on Friday.

The win put the Illinois District 17 team back in the Senior League Softball World Series for the third straight year. The goal for the players — who come from cities in and around Springfield as well as Beardstown — is now to defend their World Series championship from a year ago.

The District 17 champion, who won the state tournament before moving on to regionals in Lexington, Kentucky, went 4-0 at regionals, with two straight victories over the Ohio representative.

“I don’t want to say easier,” District 17 coach Tom Orr said of this year’s path. “We’re playing good softball. It’s just a different team, so it took me a while to get used to the girls. I think things are starting to work out and everyone is finding their place and their niche.”

Volpert also said it’s more complicated than just saying that experience at this level makes things easier. There’s a mix, she said.

“I think in some ways it feels harder because there’s an expectation now. We set a pretty high standard last year, winning the whole tournament, and we want to do that again,” Volpert said. “But at the same time, it’s almost easier because we’re more mature and know what to expect on the field.”

The team is now in Roxana, Delaware and will play the West Region champion, Hawaii, on Monday at 7 p.m. Central to begin pool play. All games will be streamed live on ESPN Plus. On Tuesday, Tri-County will play the Southeast Region champion, South Carolina, at 2 p.m., and then the Canadian representative from Calgary, Alberta, at 4:30 p.m. On Thursday, Tri-County will play the winner of the Europe-Africa Regional, Netherlands, at 4:30 p.m. Pool crossover games are on Friday, the semifinals are on Saturday, and the championship game is on Sunday at 6 p.m.

In the championship game, Volpert — who will be a senior at Springfield High School in the fall — struck out four and allowed two unearned runs on three hits and no walks in six innings as Tri-County defeated Ohio 9-2. Pawnee junior Ava Rodriguez and Havana junior Kaydi Miller each homered. Rodriguez hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth to give Tri-County an 8-2 lead.

For her time at the plate, Volpert was 2-for-3 while catcher Taryn Griffith, a senior at Chatham Glenwood, was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Griffith, in her second season with the club, said the comfort level with her teammates and coaches made this run even better.

Orr thought the team would have a quiet trip from Lexington to Delaware, but on Friday he was told there had been a change of plans and the team would have to commute to Cincinnati for the flight to Philadelphia. There’s nothing that kills a party like an alarm clock going off at 3 a.m. the next morning.

“Normally in the past, there would be two or three days between the last day and the travel day,” Orr said. “This year, the tournament ended the day before the travel day. We think we’re flying out of Lexington, so we’re coming here and getting hotels. (Little League officials) told me we were flying out of Cincinnati, and I said, ‘Nobody told me that; they told me we were flying out of Lexington.’

Illinois winners opened regional play with an 11-1 win over Michigan on Tuesday. Griffith and Rushville-Industry junior Italee Ford each drove in three runs while Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Ford homered while Griffith doubled. Volpert struck out eight in the win.

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On Wednesday, Tri-County defeated the hosts 16-0 in just four innings. Ford had two homers and four RBIs, while Addie Seitz, a senior at Biggsville West Central, hit a home run and drove in five. Seitz also struck out seven in her four-inning win.

The next day, Rodriguez had a career-high eight RBI and went 3-for-4 with two home runs — including a grand slam in the second inning to give Tri-County a 7-1 lead in an eventual 13-2 victory in five innings. Volpert allowed one run on two hits in four innings. Ohio went on to defeat Michigan in the double-elimination tournament to earn another shot at Illinois, and while they kept things a bit closer, Tri-County still pulled out a 9-2 victory to advance to the World Series.

“We still have four solid pitchers, our hitting is just as good as it was last year — just a couple of different pieces — the girls are more mature and a year older and they’re stronger,” Orr said. “This team seems to be hitting the ball harder than it was last year.”

It wasn’t until the team qualified to return to the World Series that they could talk about it, said Griffith, who is in her second season with the club.

“We made a pact that we wouldn’t talk about Delaware at regionals because we didn’t want to get overconfident,” Griffith said.

Nine players from last year are back, but the new signings fit together perfectly, according to Volpert.

“I think most of us mesh really well together,” Volpert said. “A lot of the girls have played on the same travel ball teams or the same high school ball teams, so a lot of us know each other already.”

During the high school season, Griffith and Volpert both compete for the Central State Eight Conference title, but their friendship goes back much further, Griffith said. That gives the batterymates a synchronized chemistry during games.

“Mia and I have known each other for a long time,” Griffith said. “We played against each other when we were 10 years old, then we played on the same competitive team, and now we’re fucking conference rivals. I saw her in competitive ball games two or three years ago, so playing with her is not new.”

Last year, Illinois District 17 defeated reigning champion Texas 5-4 to win the title.

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, [email protected]Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.