CHARLESTON — The Olympia softball team is returning to state in style.

Keri Leach struck out 10 and pitched a five-ining no-hitter Monday as Olympia beat Teutopolis 14-0 in the Class 2A Charleston Supersectional.

The victory at Eastern Illinois University sends the Spartans (35-2) back to the state finals, where they finished second last season.

This time, Olympia will face Coal City in the state semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Friday at EastSide Centre in East Peoria. The winner plays at 7 p.m. Saturday for the state title, and the loser plays at 4:30 p.m. for third place.

“When you have 14 hits and a no-hitter, I’d say you have a pretty good chance,’’ Olympia coach Al Toliver said about his team’s victory over T-Town (31-6).

Kara Usherwood made a leaping catch along the third-base line in the third inning to preserve the no-no. Toliver said that was the hardest-hit ball T-Town had all night.

Olympia scored seven in the third inning, thanks to five hits and three T-Town errors.

Taylor Hanes had three RBIs for the Spartans.

At Dakota

United’s Class 1A supersectional game against the hosts was postponed because of rain. The game has been rescheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
 

Seven hundred wins.

That’s how many victories the Olympia softball and baseball teams have combined for over the last 11 seasons. Basic English grammar rules dictate that it be spelled out, but it’s such an impressive total that it deserves the respect of being spelled out. Perhaps even more impressive is the Spartans’ winning percentage. With a combined overall record of 700-129-5, the squads win games at an 84 percent clip.

Over that decade-plus of dominance, the Spartans have combined to make 13 appearances at their respective IHSA state finals and brought home six trophies.

“I think there’s several common themes,” Olympia baseball coach Ron Smith said. “But the biggest one in my mind is that we start our kids young and they play together for a long time.”

Journal Star writers Ben Diggle and Adam Duvall examine some of the Spartans’ shared highs and lows over the course of the last decade.
 

2002

In 2002, each Olympia program was making its third consecutive appearance at the state finals. They were both denied trophies in their first two visits, but finally broke through and claimed Class A state championships just minutes apart on June 1, 2002.

Baseball

Prior to the Spartans’ Elite Eight game, head coach Ron Smith sat his team down and asked a simple question: Do you want me to set up the pitching rotation to trophy or set it up to win a state title?

State championship was the unanimous choice and after Cam Cheek and Ryan Kendrick pitched the Spartans into the title game, sophomore Tyler Thornton made history.

After surrendering a three-run home in the first, Thornton pitched a one-hitter the rest of the way as Olympia claimed a 4-3 victory in eight innings. Thornton finished with seven strikeouts and three walks and was named State Finals MVP.

“After he gave up that home run in the first, I wondered whether he would make it out of the inning,” Olympia coach Ron Smith said. “I went out and had a talk with him on the mound and after that, he was lights out and the rest is history.”

Softball

It was familiar territory for Olympia. The Spartans had lost in the 2001 Class A title game, 3-0 to Nashville. But this year Oly was back to the big game.

And this time...

“It was just a pressure packed game,” Olympia coach Al Toliver said of the 2-1, 10 inning win over Carrollton.

“It was just two good teams going at it. Extra innings. Anything could happen. It was just an exciting time.”

Toliver credits his pitcher, Jessie Shay for coming up big. The junior stranded two runners in eighth inning and retired the bottom of the 10th in order.

“She worked out some of the tough situations in the game,” Toliver said. “She kept it close all the way and just gave us an opportunity to win.”

Olympia went on to win the 2003 title as well going 41-2 that season.
 

2004

After winning it all on the same day two years earlier, both Spartan squads were upset on May 24, 2004. The baseball team suffered a heart-breaking 2-1 defeat to rival Deer Creek-Mackinaw, while Normal U-High blanked the softball team 5-0 to end the Spartans run at a third consecutive state championship.

Baseball

In the top of the eighth inning, Dee-Mack pitcher Matt Herrick reached on a fielder’s choice, although Smith argued that Herrick should have been out thanks to interference at second base.

The next batter, Cody Frietsch, doubled to left-center field and to further compound the problem, the Olympia left fielder kicked the ball as he tried to pick it up. That allowed Herrick to score the game-winning run all the way from first base.

“Unfortunately, I remember it quite well,” Smith said. “But that’s baseball.

“Those things happen and in the Illinois postseason, it’s one-and-done.”

The Dee-Mack victory spoiled a fantastic outing by Tyler Thornton. Then a senior and headed to Bradley University, Thornton strikes out 15 and walks just three in his final game as a Spartan.

Softball

There was no getting past Normal U-High.

After dropping a 3-2 game in April, the Pioneers responded with two wins in a span of eight days.

First, U-High won 2-0 to blemish Olympia’s perfect Corn Belt Conference record. Next, the Pioneers used the arm of sophomore Kellie Kinsella to grab a 5-0 regional title win.

“That was a good U-High team that year,” Toliver said. “We knew they were very capable (of beating us). They got the job done.”

Olympia didn’t help its cause any, stranding eight runners on base including leaving the bases loaded in the sixth.

The 2006 Journal Star Player of the Year Lindsay Watkins came to pitch in relief. Watkins, a sophomore at the time, hurled 4 2/3 innings, giving up one run and scattering three hits.

“You’d like to go every year (to state) but realistically, it’s not likely,” Toliver said.

2008

Once again, the Olympia softball and baseball teams found themselves at the IHSA state finals, but there would be no shared championship this time. The baseball team wins it second state championship with a 6-1 victory over Illinois Valley Central in Class 2A. The softball team, meanwhile, finds itself on the wrong end of a 13-2 loss to Carterville in the Class 2A state-championship game.

Baseball

Nature was determined to etch its name in the record books of this tournament from the start.

Olympia’s 4-1 semifinal win over Coal City was shortened to five innings by a deluge that left water standing all over Silver Cross Field. Illinois Valley Central’s semifinal against Pinckneyville  was postponed to Saturday morning.

Saturday broke clear and beautiful and it ended with fireworks peppering a starry sky as Olympia celebrated a 6-1 win over IVC in the state title game.

Much like Tyler Thornton did in 2002, an Olympia hurler made a name for himself. Matt Frahm, a 6-foot-6 junior, held a potent IVC offense to just one run on six hits and struck out seven.

“After the 2004 season, I did a little bit of a reassessment,” coach Ron Smith said. “I realized that probably 65-70 percent of the teams in Illinois would love to win 25 games in a season.

“That gave me peace of mind and it helped me remember not to take seasons like 2008 for granted.”

Softball

It was supposed to be the perfect night.

Just like 2002: two titles, one school, all the same night.

But the storybook ending ran into a Carterville team that could hit.

And score runs.

The Lions set an all-class title game record for runs in its 13-2 win in the inaugural Class 2A title game.

“We ran into a Carterville team who had been knocking at the door for a couple years in a row and they really wanted it and got the job done,” Oly coach Al Toliver said.

Carterville scored 10 straight runs after leading 3-2 following the fourth inning.

The Spartans came in on a nine-game win streak and were looking to grab their first title since 2003.

“Well, we played extremely well all the way through to the last game,” Toliver said. “We just didn’t have our best game, the last game.”