Carterville, IL — Link to original article: https://bit.ly/3SGebLD Carterville pitcher Caidence Phillips celebrated her 17th birthday in style Friday, tossing a 5-0 one-hit, seven-inning shutout over the Carmi-White County Bulldogs in the championship game of the Class 2A Harrisburg Regional. The win marks the fifth-straight regional title for Carterville. The Lions improve to 25-4 overall and advance to the Murphysboro Sectional semifinals next week, where they will meet Red Bud (25-7), a 10-0 winner over Chester Friday at the Red Bud Regional. Game time is set for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The other two teams to advance to the Murphysboro Sectional are Johnston City and Anna-Jonesboro. The Indians defeated Pinckneyville, 6-2. The Wildcats defeated Mount Carmel, 5-4. JC and A-J will square off Tuesday at 4:30 in the other semifinal game. Carterville head coach Will Capie said his team performed fairly well. “I thought defensively, we were solid all game,” Capie said. “Offensively, we hit some balls hard, but right at people. It was similar to what we did the other day against Massac County. Their pitcher (Lindsay Simmons) did a good job hitting her spots and keeping us off balance, inducing some weak contact. “I thought our hitters made some adjustments putting balls in play and our baserunning was outstanding,” he said. Phillips said she has pitched better. “I thought I was OK. I didn’t think I had my best stuff today,” the junior said. “One of my pitches wasn’t working very well, but my fastball was working pretty well. I thought my teammates did an amazing job behind me. Audrina (Sloan) had an especially good game at second base.” The lone senior on the team — shortstop Kendall McCalla — struck out her first two trips to the plate, but bounced back to deliver a two-run homer to center in the bottom of the sixth, expanding the Lions’ lead to 5-0. “It was nice to get that one,” McCalla said. “I knew after the first two strikeouts that I needed to do something to help pick up my team. I didn’t care whether the pitch was inside or out. I was looking for anything but a change up. I wasn’t for sure it was out when I hit it. I was hoping so.” Carterville took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs and nobody on base, Phillips singled to left. Sofia Badiu was inserted as a courtesy runner for Phillips. Taryn Ford followed with an RBI double into left center, driving home Badiu. Savannah Gibbs then smoked a double into right center, scoring Ford. The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth as both Phillips and Simmons kept runners off the bases for the most part. In that sixth, the Lions tallied three insurance runs. Taryn Ford blasted a solo homer to center to make it 3-0. Gibbs walked and stole second. After a deep flyout off the bat of Lainey Workman and pop out to short off the bat of Sloan, McCalla ordered up her two-run shot. Phillips finished the game with 13 strikeouts. She walked none and hit one batter. The lone hit against her came in the top of the third inning when Eva Attebury collected a clean single to left. Simmons allowed five runs on eight hits in her six innings of work. She struck out two and walked two. Taryn Ford paced the Lions with two hits, including a double, homer and two RBIs. Gibbs, Phillips, McCalla, Emi Ford, Kendall Henriksen, and Sloan all contributed one hit each.