Cami Carter and North Boone stroll into softball program's first sectional championship
North Boone and star pitcher and hitter Cami Carter carved out a 12-0 win over Bureau Valley on Wednesday night, joining Dakota as the first Rockford-area softball teams to make it to a sectional final this postseason.
And becoming the first North Boone softball team to ever get to a sectional championship round.
"The girls were pretty excited about it, that's for sure," North Boone (26-4) head coach Tim Fleming said. "And we're playing with a lot of confidence. We're ready for anything."
More: area softball: Hononegah clinches third straight NIC-10 softball title, carrying momentum toward playoffs
Dakota locked up its bid to Friday's Class 1A South Beloit Sectional championship game with a 15-7 win over Orangeville on Tuesday night. Then North Boone, and the hard-throwing and even-harder-hitting Carter, secured their berth into Friday's 2A Marengo Sectional title matchup with that dominant shutout of Bureau Valley.
Carter gave up five hits with nine strikeouts and no walks while blasting a grand slam at the plate to spark North Boone over Bureau Valley. Junior Avery Torres, who smacked a grand slam in North Boone's big 9-3 win over No. 1-seeded Marengo last Friday, went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs on Wednesday.
And North Boone is on a roll. The Vikings have won 15 of their last 16, including 12 by six or more runs. Carter is a big reason.
"Cami is fresh and ready for this backstretch run now, too," Fleming said. "We want to ride that big horse now, you know. Let's see what we can do."
Dakota soars in Class 1A
Dakota (24-5-1) is just one win away from its first 1A sectional title since 2017 and is at the same spot where it fell to Forreston in walk-off fashion two years ago.
This time, Dakota will take on East Dubuque, 10-3 winners over Durand in the semis, in Friday's sectional finale.
"These girls came into this year with a goal of going to state, and they've put in the time and the work to get it done," Dakota head coach Jeff Kinney said. "We really have a great lineup everywhere you look, and our pitching has kept us in games sometimes. So we're playing good."
Senior pitcher Hannah Simmer, who headed into the last game with a 1.43 ERA and with 149 strikeouts, basically shut Orangeville down until the game was out of reach. And senior Ava Sutherland and senior Kendra Nehring each blasted two-run homers in the victory.
3A, 4A teams off and running
The 3A and 4A playoffs have just kicked off with round-one regional games being played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.
No. 1 seeded Hononegah already blasted East 15-0 in a 4A regional semifinal game on Tuesday night. Hononegah will face Harlem, 11-3 winners over Guilford on Wednesday, in Friday's Harlem Regional final.
Belvidere North, the top seed from the area in 3A, hosts Belvidere at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in a regional semifinal game. They are aiming for a berth in the regional finals, which will be played on Friday.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: IHSA softball: Cami Carter sparks North Boone into sectional finals
