Remember when: Peoria-area softball champs relive title runs

EastSide Centre should be bustling with fans over the next two Saturdays, eagerly awaiting to see their team potentially crowned as the latest Illinois High School Association softball state champion.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 IHSA spring championships.

Instead, the Journal Star will look back on some of the memories of past team champions.

So, remember when:

Justine Phillips became the first player ever to hit two home runs in a state title game as Metamora beat River Forest Trinity 4-2 on June 12, 2010, capturing the Class 3A championship. Her one-out solo shot came in the first inning followed by an inside-the-park homer in the fifth. Those clutch hits from the 2010 Journal Star Softball Co-Player of the Year helped spark Metamora to the program’s first state championship and a 39-1 final record.

“Honestly, it’s been so long I don’t remember what the pitch even looked like (on the inside-the-park home run) but I do remember when I saw (Metamora coach Deric) Linder’s arm waving me home I was like,

'Are you serious!?', then I was like, 'I better get moving’

“Well the only thing I remember (on the second home run) is it was my pitch and I remember swinging as hard as I could — I had not gotten a hit in a few at bats and was frustrated — and when I saw it go over I could not believe it. It was my first over the fence home run of the season.”

“There was a breath of relief and then a lot of excitement and emotion (following the final out)! We worked so hard all season and could not believe that we had finally accomplished our goal!”

Amber Lessen caught a combined 17 innings for Olympia in back-to-back Class A state titles in 2002 and 2003. Her RBI single in the fourth inning of ’02 victory tied the game before the Spartans beat Carrollton, 2-1 in 10 innings on June 1, 2002. In the second championship victory, the senior provided some insurance with a run-scoring double as part of the 2-0 victory over Piasa Southwestern on June 7, 2003.

“For several years leading up to those games, there was always a feeling of a ‘target’ on our backs, like we were the team to beat. Prior to 2002, we had many years of success, winning state as eighth-graders, returning as freshmen, placing second as sophomores. As a team, we were incredibly lucky to spend every summer and every school year playing together with winning state championships being the main goal.

“So, winning not only back-to-back championships, winning my senior year was not a ‘relief’ but it felt pretty amazing and was so much fun! It was the culmination of so many years of hard work as a group. We knew each other through and through and we had an incredible level of trust amongst our team. It was nothing but a blessing and incredible experience to finish my (high school) career with that group of girls and a third state championship as an Olympia Spartan.”

“There is no comparison (of catching 17 innings of state championship softball). Being on that field, as a catcher, you see it all, you have to work hard to help lead your team and catching your best friend, Jessie Shay, for both of those games, adds a special amount of magic.”

Al Toliver capped an incredible 10-year run at Olympia with a 9-1 2009 Class 2A state championship victory over Piasa Southwestern on June 6, 2009. The Spartans were led by Keri Leach, the ’09 JS Player of the Year, who pitched a three-hitter with nine strikeouts, while driving in two runs. Toliver finished that decade span with three state titles and two runner-ups.

“After they lost in the state championship in '08, they went right to work, like the next day, and said, ‘The season's not going to end in like that again,’ ” Toliver said. “I can tell from, from that point on, they were on mission for that next year. And it was fun to watch. They just worked and worked and worked. That (state finals) weekend you could just tell how focused they were, and how confident they were, and they weren't going to be denied.”

“I know Keri Leach, in particular, just really stepped her pitching, so she would be ready for that next year. And her worked showed. She was just so ready to compete every day and just give her best effort every time out on the mound.”

“(That decade) was just so much fun to be part of that to go to state and every year to have so many fans there watching, and then to see all the young athletes who looked at those girls and idolized those girls and said, ‘I want to be there I want to do this.’ And, and then later on see them step up in those same shoes and be those girls that the younger girls were looking at too that was, that was just fun to watch.”

Adam Duvall can be reached at 686-3214 or aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.