Valley girls move into Little League finals

PERU — Spring Valley topped LaSalle 9-2 in District 20 major league softball tournament play at Veterans Park in Peru Thursday night, setting up a rematch with Oglesby for the District 20 title.

Spring Valley jumped out to 3-0 lead after the first two innings, but LaSalle managed a pair of runs in the third to tighten things up at 3-2.

Spring Valley responded by plating solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings, before capping things off with a four-run sixth for the 9-2 final score.

Brenna Faletti, Adriana Pikula and Abby Azarskis each scored two runs in the contest while Deidra Whightsil, Raley Mauck and Tori Parnell added solo scores for Spring Valley.

Faletti, Pikula and Mauck split pitching duties for Spring Valley, who will move on to face Oglesby for the District 20 Championship. With a rainout Friday, that meeting will come at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Since Oglesby already defeated Spring Valley 4-2 in the double-elimination tournament, Spring Valley will have to beat them twice to earn the title, beginning with a 3 p.m. meeting Saturday.

“We’re happy to get to the championship round, and we’ll see how it goes,” said Spring Valley manager Jeff Mauck. “Like I told the girls last night, it’s one out at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time and we’ll see how it goes.

Junior League Softball: Oglesby beat Peru 3-1 and LaSalle defeated Bi-County 15-5 Thursday. Friday’s games were rained out and moved to Saturday, with Spring Valley facing Peru at 5:45 p.m. and Princeton vs. LaSalle at 7:30 p.m.

Junior League Baseball: Thursday’s games saw LaSalle beat Mendota 6-1 and Peru edge Streator 7-6. Friday’s rainouts have Spring Valley facing Mendota at 6 p.m. and Peru vs. Oglesby at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at M&H Field in LaSalle.

Senior League Baseball: Thursday’s action at Kirby Park in Spring Valley saw Peru top Bi-County 2-1 and Streator beat Mendota 6-5. Undefeated Peru awaits the winner between Bi-County and Streator.

On deck: The Minor League tournaments for 9- and 10-year-olds start up Monday with the softball tournament at Veterans Park in Peru and the baseball tournament at Spring Valley. In baseball, Spring Valley faces Bi-County at 6 p.m. with Princeton awaiting Monday’s winner between newcomer Pekin and Ottawa at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. On the softball diamond, Spring Valley squares off against Oglesby at 6 p.m. followed by Princeton vs. Bi-County.