3A state softball: Eaton defeats University for second title in three years

AURORA — Eaton may be the most perfectly imperfect team in all of Class 3A softball.

Before the season even began, the Reds were already without one of their very best players. And, that was only the start of Eaton’s injury woes.
Yet, even when the Reds were hurting, they refused to be broken.

During an up-and-down regular season, Eaton suffered seven losses. The Reds even had a four-game losing streak that spanned late-August and early-September.

But even in those losses, Eaton refused to be defeated.

And, finally at the end of a roller-coaster season, perfectly imperfect isn’t the only moniker this Reds team will be remembered as.

They’ll also be remembered as a state champion.

Eaton grinded through 29 games, winning its final nine, including a 9-1 victory against Patriot League rival University in the 3A title game Saturday at the Aurora Sports Park.

“Everyone saw our losses and didn’t think we would be able to do this,” Reds standout junior pitcher Julia Meagher said. “It just feels so good to prove everyone wrong. We were able to pull through in the end.”

Eaton capped its season with a 22-7 record. University finished — one victory shy of a state title for the second consecutive season — with a 23-7 record.
While the Bulldogs fell short of winning their second state title in four seasons, the Reds locked up their second title in three seasons. They won their initial championship in 2020.

That season, Eaton went 18-2.

Aside from the longer campaign, the Reds simply had to endure more this time around.

They learned in June they would be without star junior pitcher/infielder Sadie Ross — who was the 3A player of the year as a freshman in ’20.

Over the summer, Ross again tore her anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus — the same injury that sidelined her for most of her sophomore season after she initially injured her knee during her freshman basketball season for Highland, months after winning a state title with Eaton.

The injuries didn’t stop there for the Reds.

Eaton’s starting catcher, sophomore Zoe Hamilton, broke her thumb right after the first game of the season. The Reds had to turn to this past season’s junior varsity catcher, sophomore Amelia Bowden, who filled in perfectly.

Then, junior Stephanie Bingley injured her bicep late in the season and stepped away from pitching, limited to her other position, third base.

With the injury to Ross, Meagher already had enormous weight on her shoulders in the pitcher’s circle. The injury to Bingley added even more weight.
Meagher didn’t flinch, carrying Eaton from the pitcher’s circle throughout their gritty state tournament run.

In fact, Meagher threw every pitch of the Reds’ state tournament campaign, allowing just three earned runs the entire weekend, all 27 innings, as Eaton went 4-0.
Meagher capped her relentless performance with perhaps her finest pitching performance of the season, as she held University to one unearned run on eight scattered hits, striking out one and walking two.

“I just had to go to Julia (after Bingley’s injury) and say, ‘This is all you. It’s all yours from here on, every inning, every game,'” Reds veteran coach Dale Hughes said. “And she said, ‘I’m ready for it.’ And, man, she rose to the occasion.”