PEORIA — Lemont sophomore Raegan Duncan joined the team’s group text chat Friday morning with a rather alarming question.
She asked whether anyone had an extra pair of pants.
“I walked out of the house with the wrong pants,” Duncan said. “We wear blue pants, but I brought my travel blue pants, which have a white stripe down the side.”
To the rescue came teammate Natalie Pacyga.
The fit?
“Great,” Duncan said. “Yeah, you know, they’re mediums. They’re good. They’re moving.”
Duncan did remember to bring her bat, which came in very handy during Lemont’s 3-1 victory over Antioch in a Class 3A state semifinal game at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.
South Carolina recruit Sage Mardjetko struck out 12 for Lemont (33-6), which advanced to the state championship game on Saturday. Nicole Pontrelli had an RBI triple, and Duncan had an RBI single.
Aubrey Ultsch had a single and an RBI double for Antioch (29-4). Eden Echevarria added a double, while right-hander Jacey Schuler struck out eight.
Duncan drove in the winning run for Lemont for the second game in a row.
Her run-scoring single against Antioch came in the top of the third inning. It followed a sacrifice fly by Pacyga.
On Monday, Duncan hit a home run to lead Lemont to a 1-0 supersectional victory over Metamora.
A good time for magic.
“Oh, yeah,” Duncan said. “It’s always fun. Especially in these playoff games, I like to stay looser up in the box.
“Honestly, when I do that, it feels so much more effortless when it’s coming off of the bat. And when it does, it goes far.”
Duncan’s loose-as-a-goose approach Friday was in direct contrast to hers last season, when she was 1-for-4 in two games at state.
“As a freshman, I was very tight,” Duncan said. “I was so nervous and tense, like, ‘I have to do well.’
“Getting runner-up in state was definitely a motivation. Also, coming off of my hits and my at-bats as a freshman, this time I wanted it to be much more fun and effortless.”
Duncan came into the game with a team-leading .440 average. She has 10 doubles, three triples, six home runs and 46 RBIs.
This season, Lemont coach Christine Traina moved her from the outfield to third base, and up a couple of notches in the batting order.
It has paid off in big dividends.
“Raegan definitely means a lot to us both defensively and offensively,” Traina said. “She’s a kid who loves the game. She’s a kid who basically studies the game too.
“As a batter, she just kind of thinks what she’s looking for. She sees where, if there are runners on, she needs to put the ball.”
The defensive star of the game was Pontrelli.
The junior left fielder had quite a battle with the fence on foul balls down the line. On the first play, she caught the ball but dropped it as she crashed into the fence.
“It was definitely in my glove,” Pontrelli said. “When I hit that fence, I didn’t know it was there. I was pretty upset with it.”
Pontrelli evened the score later when she caught a foul fly and again crashed into the fence. This time she held on. Her RBI triple brought some additional icing.
“When I got up to bat, I got the sign to bunt,” Pontrelli said. “It was a ball, so I pulled back. Then I got the green light. I saw the pitch — it was a little outside. But I got my bat to the ball, and it went.”
Mardjetko (20-1), meanwhile, saw her streak of scoreless innings end at 52. The senior right-hander was still effective, striking out two batters in six of the seven innings.
“Antioch is a really good team,” Mardjetko said. “We were expecting them to hit the ball. We definitely made some good plays, and that helped.”
