Highland High School softball team still basking in glow of winning state championship
June 17 will go down as a landmark day in the history of Highland High School softball.
That’s the afternoon the Lady Bulldogs softball team capped off their magical 2021 season with a 1-0, walk-off win over Lemont to claim the Class 3A Championship at Louisville Slugger Field in Peoria.
Still, the joy and exhilaration of winning the state tournament and the celebration at home in Highland runs deep for Lady Bulldogs softball players such as seniors Sam Miener and Syd Parkerson.
For Miener and Parkerson, ending with a state championship trophy was the perfect cap to their Highland careers.
“I think it’s the best way I could possibly leave high school,” Miener said. “You can’t go out any better than getting first at state. That was very exciting and then also to make history along with it just made it even better.”
“It really feels like a dream still,” Parkerson said. “It’s unbelievable that our team came together so well and stepped up at the right time. And we made it count in the last inning of the last game.”
At state, HHS, which finished the season 25-1, defeated Sterling 8-1 in the state semifinals the morning June 17. Then, on Alicia Pitkin’s savvy base-running and Maddie Trauernicht’s timely sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Bulldogs knocked off Lemont 1-0 in dramatic fashion to win the state crown later that day.
Furthermore, Highland won seven straight games in the postseason to capture the school’s first state championship in softball. The Lady Bulldogs hit a blazing. 337 in the playoffs with 32 runs scored.
“We had a lot of kids stepping up for us in the postseason, and once we got into the championship game and after a couple of innings ... that’s where I’m thinking we’ve got a chance (to win it),” Highland coach Glen Nicholls said.
The scene right after the championship game win was pure elation as the Lady Bulldogs players dogpiled on the infield at Louisville Slugger Complex.
After riding back into Highland from Peoria that evening, the celebration was only beginning.
The team had a police escort down Illinois 143 into town to the softball parking lot at school. Then, they were given a police escort into town all the way to the town square where they were greeted by fans, friends, and city officials as the celebration continued on.
It was a wonderful welcome home for Miener and Parkerson.
“I thought that it was really exciting and, especially, that the community was just as excited as we were and wanted to celebrate with us,” Miener said.
“The parade was awesome, and it was actually nice to have everybody there and recognize the softball team ... and be successful as a woman’s sport,” Parkerson said. “It was nice to see everybody there.”
Lady Bulldogs coach lauds parade
Nicholls also enjoyed the parade scene.
“The parade was pretty cool,” he said. “We had a police escort lead our bus through with the lights going and they escorted us to the softball parking lot where the kids had their cars parked. Then, the kids wrote ‘state’ on their cars in chalk and the police escorted everybody in their cars to the square.
“They’ve got this big pavilion in the area and the kids got out of their cars, and there were a lot of people there from the game (to celebrate). It was an electric atmosphere both there and in Peoria.”
Lasting memories
For the team and Nicholls, the best part of winning state and having the parade and celebration is the memories they will get to keep.
“Watching all the girls being able to celebrate and knowing that they just basically did something (winning state) that no other softball team at Highland has done before was great,” Nicholls said. “You couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces.”
Bar set higher for Highland softball
Parkerson believes the Lady Bulldogs championship run establishes Highland as a bonafide softball power and that next year’s club will have the bar set high for them.
“Yes, I think it definitely puts Highland on the.map and that these girls can step up again next year as seniors. And I hope they can get the job done, too,” Parkerson said.
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 11:31 AM.