AURORA – It has been quite the half decade for the Lutheran softball team.
On Saturday at Aurora Sports Park, the Lions won 1-0 over the Windsor Wizards in the Class 4A softball state championship game. It was the program’s fourth straight state championship, including a 3A title the last three 4A titles.
Lions head coach Glen Maestretti says he doesn’t look at the history books much but if someone can show him a better class of freshmen through seniors on a better run, he’d be amazed.
“Man, I tell you what, these seniors alone are responsible for about 107 wins, maybe,” Maestretti said. “You’re not going to find that anywhere else. These girls have been so dominant for so long and everybody probably didn’t think we were going to do it because we graduated a couple really big seniors. But, man, they overlooked these six seniors we had here this year.”
Making their fifth straight title game appearance, the top-seeded Lions (27-1) pulled ahead of the Wizards (27-3) when Mackenzy Glenn singled to lead off the first inning and later scored on an error. That was it for the scoring, as both starting pitchers settled in for a pitchers’ duel after that.
Windsor sophomore Jenna McGinnis threw six innings, allowing the one unearned run on two hits while walking one batter and striking out five. Lutheran sophomore Annie Schroeder pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up just four hits while walking three batters and striking out six.
Both teams entered the game allowing less than 2.4 runs per game, so the defensive showdown may not have been much of a surprise. Schroeder’s season, however, was a pleasant surprise considering she tore the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in her throwing elbow in April and slowly returned to a regular pitching load as the season progressed.
It’s safe to say she’s back.
“It’s just amazing,” Schroeder said. “God has gifted me and allowed me to be here. For a long time, I thought that I wasn’t going to come back and that I wasn’t going to be able to do it because I was hurt and this is the second injury that I’ve had. But, God is good and he just has blessed us and I’m so thankful for that.”
Windsor last played in the state title game in 2011 and last won a state title in 2006.
Lutheran is now tied with Boulder, Holy Family and Eaton for fourth all-time with four softball state titles.
To reach the championship game, Lutheran won 5-2 over No. 5 Holy Family. In the opposite semifinal, Windsor defeated No. 3 Pueblo County, 5-1.
