Softball: St. Charles North does it again, beats Marist to win Class 4A state championship

Ginger Ritter knew she had momentum on her side.

After St. Charles North had four straight batters reach base, all with two outs, to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning of Saturday’s Class 4A final, she was confident that no matter what happened, she would make it five batters in a row.

So with her pitcher, her teammates, and most importantly her sister, Skyla Ritter, on her mind, she swung as hard as she could.

And sent a ball over the left field fence.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy for anything ever,” Ginger Ritter said. “It’s just so unreal.”

Ritter’s three-run home run capped off a five-run sixth inning rally to help St. Charles North to a 7-2 victory over defending state champion Marist to win the Class 4A state title at the Louisville Sluggers Sports Complex.

It’s St. Charles North’s second state title in program history, and also the second one in three seasons. The North Stars (26-6) beat the RedHawks 3-2 in the 2022 state title game.

“Marist is probably the most challenging team to face, so that locks you in. If you aren’t locked in to play someone like that on this stage, you’re crazy,” North coach Tom Poulin said. “But our girls were ready. They’ve had a purpose since the beginning, and it was to work towards this. And I can not tell you how proud of them I am.

“This is the reward you can get when you buy in to a team concept.”

While the game was tied 2-2 heading into the sixth inning, the North Stars were on a bit of a dry spell, no baserunners since a walk by Maddy Hernandez in the second inning. But Poulin knew that the more at-bats they had, the better they would be at the plate.

“We just kept telling them that we were still in this game,” Poulin said. “It’s going to take quality at-bats, and we only needed one inning to put things together. We kept telling them to stay positive and in-the-moment and good things will happen.”

After two quick outs in the inning pushed the streak to 12 batters not reaching base, Skyla Ritter, who scored the game-winning run in the state semifinals against Oswego, drew a walk.

After that, it was pretty clear what needed to be done.

“We’ve made it this far, why not win it?” Ginger Ritter said. “We went all out. All gas, no brakes.”

And the first one to put her foot down on the gas pedal? Addy Umlauf.

The junior, who also had St. Charles North’s last hit at that point back in the first inning, tripled to right-center field to drive in courtesy runner Ivy Gleason for the go-ahead run to give North a 3-2 lead, and Umlauf a reason to dance while standing on third base.

“I knew I had to answer back from what Skyla did,” Umlauf said. “It was getting deeper into the game and I knew we needed to start something there. But I can’t think of a better feeling than that.”

Abby Zawadzki kept the rally going after driving in Umlauf with a soft grounder that skipped past the shortstop, and Haley Nelson drew another two-out walk before Ritter’s big blast blew the game open.

“Everybody contributed today, whether it was offensively or defensively,” Poulin said. “They made a great play, they had good at-bats, they had clutch hits with two outs. This team is unbelievable.”

It wasn’t the only time that the North Stars overcame adversity in the game. The North Stars came to the plate for the first time in the game down 1-0 after Marist’s Camryn Lyons hit an RBI single in the top half of the inning.

But Hernandez took that advantage away real quick. On the first pitch she saw, the senior turned on it, sending it over the fence and just inside the left foul pole to draw the game even at 1-1.

“We were just hunting for strikes,” Hernandez said. “I was looking inside on the first pitch, and that’s exactly what I got.”

Later that inning, the North Stars proceeded to get three straight singles from Juliana Kouba, Skyla Ritter and Umlauf, who drove in Kouba to give North the early 2-1 advantage.

“We’d been scouting the pitcher and I knew what she was throwing,” Umlauf said. “I knew that with two outs, I had to put something in play to score some runs since they got on us first.”

While key situational hitting helped the North Stars to the win, it was the defense that really shone throughout the game. And nobody appreciated it more than pitcher Paige Murray.

The junior, who came into the game with 219 strikeouts on the season, finished the game with only two against Marist, both in the first inning. But against a team like Marist, Murray said that her only goal was just making sure to get all 21 outs.

“Marist has an incredible lineup,” Murray said. “I knew I had to get outs by any means. Strike outs, fly outs, ground outs, it didn’t matter. But both my outfield and infield made amazing plays. It was just the perfect game.”

Murray ended the game leaving eight Marist runners on base, including one on second when she got Lyons to groundout to Hernandez for the final out of the game.