Shepard went down swinging.
The Astros, who were seeded No. 6 in the Lockport Sectional, hung right in with powerhouse Lockport. But in the end, the Porters prevailed 2-0 on May 30 to win the Class 4A Shepard Regional.
It was the 14th straight win for No. 3-seeded Lockport (28-9), which has won eight straight regional championships and 25 since 1995.
Shepard (28-7) lost in the regional title game for the third straight season.
“We had such a good team,” Shepard coach Bridget McDermott said. “We won a share of the South Suburban Conference (tied with Lemont). The girls all trusted each other, and they all played for each other.”
They certainly trusted right-handed senior pitcher Kailey Selvage. As she has done the past two seasons, the DePaul recruit kept the Astros in the game, allowing one earned run on four hits, with four strikeouts, three walks and a hit batter.
“It was a good game,” Selvage said. “Yeah, it didn’t work out. But we always put up a fight.”
Selvage had some nerves in the first inning as she walked and hit the first two batters. A passed ball moved the runners to second and third. With one out, Taylor Lane lined a two-run single over short for what proved to be the only runs of the game.
But Selvage struck out the next two hitters and didn’t allow a runner past second base the rest of the game. She also got the Astros’ first hit, a two-out, first-pitch single up the middle in the fifth.
“I won’t hit in college,” Selvage said. “So I went up looking for a first-pitch strike and got it.”
Lockport’s Kelcie McGraw cruised through the first six innings. But she walked junior pinch hitter Meghan Potenza on a full count and junior center fielder Londynn Sedlak on four pitches to lead off the seventh.
Enter junior lefty Bridget Faut, who came in and got a strikeout before giving up an infield single to sophomore designated player Emrie Peterson to load the bases. But Faut bounced back to strike out Selvage on three pitches.
“It was 0-2 and I was a little nervous,” Selvage admitted of her last at-bat. “But I wanted to go down swinging.”
She did, and so did junior left fielder Juliann Radz, who hit a 1-1 pitch on the nose but right at Lane in right to end the game. Radz had the winning RBI single in the bottom of the seventh on May 28 in a 1-0 regional semifinal win over Sandburg.
Selvage set the single-season and career strikeout records at Shepard. She looks forward to DePaul, but will never forget her time as an Astro.
“What I’ll remember most is my teammates,” she said. “They are my best friends and I don’t know what I’d do without them. They helped me to be where I am today, and I appreciate that.”