While Morton College's overall record of 12-26 may not reflect it, the Panther softball program has taken a number of giant steps in the right direction in 2023.

One of Morton College's biggest accomplishments is being in position this weekend to contend for an Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference crown, something the Panthers last celebrated in 1993 and 1995.

The Panthers sit in second place at 5-1 with their final Skyway doubleheaders against the two other teams left in the hunt – at Prairie State (5-3) Friday and home against Waubonsee (6-0) two days later.

Much like the Chicago mayoral race, the final outcome could be up in the air until May 5th when McHenry faces Waubonsee to close out the Skyway season.

"We're still in the conference hunt," Morton College softball coach Aaron Moore said. "That's been one of our goals since the beginning. If we can beat Prairie State, it will all come down to Sunday. I think we can win these games, but we need to make plays and not strike out as much."

Those two things were evident as Region IV powerhouse Triton swept the Panthers 4-2 and 12-3 Tuesday (April 18th) at home. Again, the game-one loss mirrored the Panthers' development in year two of the Moore regime.

Mikayla Berquist pitched well enough to win in Morton College's closest contest against the Trojans since a 3-1 setback in 2017, but Triton took advantage of four Panthers errors and used some timely two-out hitting in building a 4-0 lead after two innings of game one.

Morton College battled back, pushing across one run in the fourth on an RBI single by Natalie Martinez and another in the fifth on a mammoth home run over the scoreboard in left-center field by Berquist, which was her team-leading fifth.

The Panthers certainly had the right person at bat in Berquist with the tying run aboard in the seventh, but she grounded out.

Triton belted five home runs in game two, but Paulina Viveros' three-run blast in the bottom of the third halved the Morton College deficit to 6-3 before the Trojans doubled their run total over the final four frames.

Berquist, Viveros, Emily Bickett and Martinez accounted for Morton College's game-one offense with one hit apiece. Ailany Reyes, Martinez and Viveros each had a hit in game two, while Thais Miranda reached base twice and scored once.

Again, the Panthers committed four errors and struck out 12 times.

"We just need to keep learning and understand which moments we need to be bigger in," Moore stated. "Mikayla threw well in game one. If we could have taken away a few things we gave away, it'd probably be 1 to 1."

The Panthers haven't sidestepped from playing a top-notch schedule that includes Lake Sumter (37-15), Gaston (36-6), North Iowa Area (30-8), St. Petersburg (29-10), Triton (27-17), Danville (26-15), Pasco Hernando (24-14), Joliet (20-9) and Caldwell Tech (20-14). In addition, DuPage (19-7) and Waubonsee (22-12) are right around the corner.

"We're playing a lot of good teams this year," Moore said.