Third Place Game - Dateline: Saturday, June 6

Another Classic Pitching Duel In East Peoria . . .
Coal City 1
West Carroll 0

By Craig Lang
Prairie Advocate Sports

The stage was set for another matchup of two outstanding pitchers in the third place game at East Peoria on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Thunder sent Jordan Kasbohm and her previous day's record setting performance to the hill. The Coalers would counter with 30-3 junior Kirsten Verdun, a recruit to DePaul University.

Like the game the night before, the scoreboard contained nothing more than zeros on the scoring side as inning after inning went by with neither team able to push a rush across the plate. There were missed opportunities on both sides of the field. When one team would threaten, the opposing team would step up the pressure and shut them down.

West Carroll in the second and seventh innings had chances but could not capitalize. Coal City finally had the luck of the draw on their side in the bottom of the ninth as Krista Watson singled to left field and pitcher Verdun drew a base on balls. Shortstop Courtney Delach hit a weak grounder up the middle between second baseman Kaiti Mathey and shortstop Reka Sedivy to bring Watson home with the game-winning run.

The Lady Coalers managed only five hits in the game, while the Lady Thunder had three, singles by Sedivy, catcher Katie Wiersema and pitcher Jordan Kasbohm. But, pitching was the name of the game, with Verdun going the distance, walking five and striking out thirteen.

Kasbohm also went nine innings, walking one while sending thirteen Coalers back to the bench via strikeouts. She struck out the side five times in the two games. The Lady Thunder end their season with a 31-10 record.

(31-10)West Carroll-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0

(33-3)Coal City-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-1-5-0

WP: Verdun (31-3) 9IP, 0R, 3H, 5BB, 13K

LP: J. Kasbohm (19-6) 8 1/3IP, 1R, 1ER, 5H, 1BB, 13K

2B: West Carroll: 2 (J. Miller, K. Wiersema)

LOB: West Carroll: 6 Coal City: 5

Attendance: 700