Midwest Fastpitch - keeptheboardcorrect@gmail.com

Midwest Fastpitch - keeptheboardcorrect@gmail.com
[ Midwest Fastpitch - keeptheboardcorrect@gmail.com ]

State Finals

Posted by Heavy D on June 7, 2026, 12:52 pm

Interesting week at State

The biggest story LWW upsets #1 Marist and follows it up with a state championship victory. Outstanding job by Coach Novak and staff

Antioch also pulls off the upset vs. #1 in 3A and flat out dominated both games with the fastest team in state and a freshman pitcher who finished a perfect 17-0.

Carterville as the #1 ranked team in 2A gets the job done and their pitcher wins Gatorade player of the year.

Re: State Finals

Posted by Congrats on June 8, 2026, 7:32 am, in reply to "State Finals"

Congrats to LWW! Certainly not considered to have the most talent in the state compared to a few others, who were clearly overrated, especially in their own conference. But they were obviously coached well, and they played as a "TEAM".
They didn't have the best team "on paper" but they played with heart, and hustle and were playing the best when they needed to. Honestly, I am not sure a single person would have seen this coming at the beginning of the year, so congrats to them!

Re: State Finals

Posted by @congrats on June 8, 2026, 2:48 pm, in reply to "Re: State Finals"

Good observation. The funny thing about softball is that the game doesn't know who is supposed to win.

Re: State Finals

Posted by @@Congrats on June 8, 2026, 2:52 pm, in reply to "Re: State Finals"

High School is incredibly hard to win. For the public schools, it's all genetics and geography, so it's hard to put together a complete team. Hard to be consistent unless you have a lights-out pitcher.

Re: State Finals

Posted by Pitcher on June 8, 2026, 10:54 pm, in reply to "Re: State Finals"

It’s always about the pitcher. You have great pitching you 99.9% win except Marist. Marist chocked again. Solid line up and a great pitcher. Is it the coaching?

Re: State Finals

Posted by swside fan on June 9, 2026, 8:55 am, in reply to "Re: State Finals"

Marist can win on sheer talent alone in about 80% of their games each year. Very little strategy needed when you have the better roster and the better pitcher. In the other 20% when moving a runner or getting tested against a strong arm on the mound is needed and coaching decisions are vital to the outcome.
Having said that they only lost two times all season which is fantastic. IMHO a lot of people could coach that roster to only two losses though.

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