By Brian Longly
THE COURIER
ROANOKE – Illinois Valley Central pitcher Zach McAllister, recently named Gatorade's Player of the Year for the state of Illinois, answered the question on the minds of Olympia and its fans Saturday.
Yes, he is that good.
McAllister pitched six shutout innings, holding the Spartans to two hits as the Grey Ghosts won 10-0 in six innings in the Roanoke-Benson Sectional final. IVC (26-2) advances to the Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional.
“They're a great baseball team, there's no question about that,” Olympia coach Ron Smith said. “When they have McAllister on the mound, you have to have a perfect day. I've been coaching long enough to know that.
“I asked our kids to play hard and they played hard. I asked them to be aggressive at the plate, to go up there and have good at-bats, and by and large I was happy with our kids approach at the plate. It's just the little things.”
Those little things included four errors in the field and three wild pitches.
“We didn't play very good defense,” Smith said. “We've been strong defensively all year, and we just didn't make a couple plays.
“Once we got down 3-0, it wasn't like we were giving up or nothing, but I knew we were in trouble.”
Justin Gillard started for Olympia (30-9) but struggled with his command. The Grey Ghosts scored twice in the first inning to take the lead, then scored again on a suicide squeeze play in the second. After Gillard allowed a hit to the next batter, Smith turned to his bullpen.
Gillard (9-3) worked just 1 2/3 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, on four hits, striking out one and walking one.
“Justin had a little trouble early throwing his breaking ball for a strike so they were able to sit dead red,” Smith said. “As we went down through the rest of our pitching staff, I thought our kids did a nice job.
“I knew coming in that we had to throw a lot of offspeed stuff and kind of pitch backward. Our trouble early is that we couldn't throw the breaking ball or changeup for strikes. When you can't do that, it just makes them that much better.”
Seven of the nine starters in the IVC lineup had at least one hit, with pinch hitter Andy Ehle getting the final hit of the game, which brought home the Grey Ghosts' 10th run.
“That's really a big important asset of our game, to put the ball in play,” IVC coach Jerry Rashid said. “We've got guys up and down the lineup that can hit, both guys with power and guys for contact. We executed well today, with that squeeze play, and we have a disciplined hitting team that does a pretty good job.”
McAllister (11-1) came into the game with a 0.81 ERA, 102 strikeouts and eight walks, and lived up to the hype. He struck out five and walked three. He also went 2-for-4 with two RBIs at the plate.
“He's pretty dominant,” Rashid said. “He walked three guys, which is unusual for him cause he had only walked eight for the year. He was putting the ball where he wanted it, though he was having a little bit of trouble with his slider, and he was throwing pretty hard.
“We're very confident when he's on the mound.”
Jack Hainline had the most success of any Spartan, going 1-for-1 and drawing two walks. Brian Foley had the team's other hit, and Jacob Hadsall drew a walk in the fourth inning.
IVC got bloop singles and key bounces off the lip of the infield on grounders several times. Combine those with the errors by the Olympia defense and McAllister's pitching, and it just wasn't the Spartans' day.
“(Travis) Strubhar came in and made good pitches, and they fist one over second base to score a run that could have been the third out,” Smith said.
“When you got a kid like McAllister on the mound and you get a break or two like that, it's lights out. What can you do?”

By Matt Williams
THE COURIER
CLINTON – Olympia had yet to play a tight game this postseason, ending each of its previous three games before the seventh inning.
The Lady Spartans decided they would wait until the 11th inning on Saturday.
Lindsay Watkins hit a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to help Olympia knock off Illini Bluffs 3-2, bringing it one game away from returning to the state tournament.
Watkins knocked the ball to left field with it barely going underneath the glove of the Tiger's left fielder Ann Barnhart as pinch runner Lydia Schmidgall scooted home from second base for the winning run.
“I think I saw her come in and the ball drop right before her glove,” Watkins said. “Then I started screaming.”
The Lady Spartans found themselves in unfamiliar territory down 2-1 with only two outs left in the seventh inning.
Olympia coach Al Toliver wasn't concerned as his No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters were coming to the plate.
“I told them all we need is one run to tie it here and we will play as long as it takes,” he said. “We had the good part of our order up and I have a lot of confidence in that part of the lineup and they came through.”
Jessie Gourdier led of the inning by lining out to first, but Keri Leach then reached first base on pitcher Chrissy Burton's fielding error and then moved to second on the same play after Burton threw the ball away.
Kaylee West made Burton pay, singling up the middle to bring in the tying run.
“Kaylee has really been hitting the ball well this last part of the season,” Toliver said. “When she drove in that tying run, I said there was nobody else I would have rather had up in that spot. She came through again today.”
Both West and Burton made quick work on the mound through the eighth, ninth an 10th innings with West shutting down the Tigers in order in the 11th.
Darci Williams led off the bottom frame with a single to left field and was substituted for Schmidgall at first. Williams had been sidelined for most of the season with a broken right hand but has seen a few at bats over the last two weeks and made the most of it on Saturday.
“I'm shaking and it was a little nerve racking,” Williams said. “I didn't know what to expect when I hit it.”
Kelsey Wilson sacrificed Schmidgall to second, bringing Watkins to the plate for the winning hit, which sends the Lady Spartans to a supersectional match up with Monticello at 1 p.m. Monday at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington.
“We got the breaks early and they got the breaks late,” Illini Bluffs coach Nancy Meyer said. “These were two good teams that had go through each other because we are close to each other.”
The breaks did go the Tigers' (25-4) way early in the game as they scored two runs off Watkins in the third inning. Steph Schafer led off the inning with an infield single and then Christine Russell had a one out single to center.
On the next play Kate Gonigam sacrificed to first, but instead of taking the out Gourdier tried to get the lead runner out at third. The throw got away from West, bringing Schafer in for a 1-0 lead. Russell then came home on a sacrifice fly to right, but Meyer knew it was no time to get comfortable with just a two-run lead.
“You know that Olympia is going to score,” she said. “They are too good of a hitting team up and down the order to hold them scoreless.”
She was right as Olympia brought a run across in the fourth after a Watkins leadoff double, keeping the Lady Spartans close with a fine relief outing from West.
West (18-1) came on in the fifth, and allowed just two hits over seven innings.
Watkins said Toliver made the right choice to make the switch.
“She did amazing,” Watkins said of West. “I am glad that she came in because I don't think we would have won if he had left me in. It is really nice to have her there when I'm struggling because I have complete confidence she will come in and close the door.”
Burton (17-4) had a strong performance in the loss, allowing two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts.
Olympia (36-2) was crowned state champions in 2002 and 2003 and Watkins said it feels good to be that much closer to the team's ultimate goal.
“The last couple years have been really disappointing,” she said. “This year we have a young team, but I think they want it just as much as the seniors do and I think we have a really good shot at going back.”