West Central High School has a long and storied history when it comes to softball. This year’s team did its best to uphold that winning tradition. With junior Addie Seitz leading the way in the pitcher’s circle, the Heat racked up an impressive 31-4-1 record, including 18-2 in the Lincoln Trail Conference.
West Central won another Class 1A regional championship, then beat Sterling Newman 5-0 in a sectional semifinal before falling to eventual state champion Ridgewood 4-0 in a sectional championship game at Williamsfield. And the tradition for West Central just keeps rolling along. “The season went really well.
I am so proud of everyone,” said Seitz, The Hawk Eye’s Illinois Softball Player of the Year. “We started off really good, then had a couple really tough games. Coming into the year we knew we had some good players from middle school coming up and we knew what we had coming back.
We had really high expectations.” West Central actually handed Ridgewood two of its five losses this season. The Heat knocked off Ridgewood 8-2 at AlWood, then won an 8-5 game in the return bout at Stronghurst, on their way to winning the conference championship.
“The first game we beat Ridgewood was a really big game for us,” Seitz said. “It was really nice to see how competitive we are and that we could compete with anyone.” Seitz, a first team all-conference pitcher, put up impressive numbers in the circle.
She fashioned a 20-3 record with a 0.57 earned-run average. In 1.
