Boehmer’ stellar outing power St. Charles East
St. Charles East’s stellar play in the Phil Lawler Summer State Tournament continued Wednesday with the Saints’ best all-around game yet.
Mike Boehmer tossed a 1-hit shutout while the Saints’ bats came alive with 16 hits in an 11-0 victory over travel-weary Kaneland in the semifinals of the St. Charles East regional.
The No. 5 seeded Saints (18-5) will play No. 6 Crystal Lake South, a 6-5 winner over Cary-Grove, in the regional championship at 5 p.m. Thursday. Thursday’s winner advances to the state tournament next week at North Central College and Benedictine University.
The Saints scored 2 runs in the first inning and never looked back, adding five more runs in the second and four in the fourth to win by the 10-run rule in four-and-a-half innings.
“That was probably the most complete kind of game they can play,” Saints coach Len Asquini said. “Ran the bases well, had great at-bats, pitched very, very well, defensively we were solid. Outstanding day for us.”
Boehmer needed just 55 pitches. He struck out four and walked none allowing just a second-inning single to Cal Pollastrini.
“I just threw what my catcher told me,” Boehmer said. “And I’ve got to give thanks to my defense. I’m not a guy who is going strike out many. I’m going to make sure they get a lot of the plays, and that’s what happened.”
Other than a change-up that “wasn’t quite there,” Boehmer was pleased with his curve ball and fastball. He said he isn’t a fan of pitching in the heat, comparing Wednesday’s outing to a recent 105-degree day he pitched for his DuPage Training Academy team in Indianapolis.
“He threw wonderful,” Asquini said. “Pounded the zone, talk about pitch efficiency. Everything was right around the plate, and he’s been like that all summer. Another great outing. He’s put himself right in the mix for the pitching rotation (next spring).”
It’s been a long week for No. 9 seed Kaneland (15-13), which started the tournament driving an hour and 20 minutes Monday to play at Harlem, then traveled two hours, 20 minutes on Tuesday to Rock Island where the Knights rallied from a 5-1 deficit to knock off the No. 1 seed 6-5 in nine innings.
Kaneland got home at 10:30 p.m. from that win, and the Knights never got anything going Wednesday at St. Charles East.
“It feels like the deck is stacked against you sometimes but hey, it’s baseball and we expect to travel and it’s summer and I like to travel,” Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. “We had an emotional win last night. We didn’t have our best effort today. We’ll learn from our mistakes and push on and get ready for next spring.”
A pair of walks cost Kaneland starter Nathan Hopkins in the first. Brian Sobieski made him pay with a two-out, 2-run single.
The Saints chased Hopkins in the second with a 5-run rally that included a 2-run single by Isaac Nimick, and run-scoring hits from Joe Hoscheit and Troy DeFilippis.
Leading 7-0, Asquini sent four pinch-hitters to the plate in the fourth inning. One of them, Mike Candrew, tripled to open the inning. Catcher Adam Rojas lined an RBI double, first baseman Ben Smith scored on a wild pitch and Jake DelloStritto capped the scoring with an RBI single.
Eleven different Saints had at least 1 hit led by Nick Erickson going 3-for-3. Hoscheit was 2-for-2 and reached base all four times as St. Charles East moved one win away from returning to the summer state finals they last qualified for two years ago.
“We want to win it,” Boehmer said. “We have a good chance to win this and I know all of us want to get to state and win it and put another sign on the back of the press box.”
Among the highlights for Kaneland Wednesday came when center fielder Pollastrini fired to catcher Josh Cohrs to throw a runner out at the plate, and Dan Miller’s diving catch in right field to strand the bases loaded.
“We saw a lot of good stuff this summer,” said Aversa, pointing to a third-place finish at St. Charles North’s Wooden Bat Tournament. “We have some things to work on, and we’ll hope to defend our conference championship next spring.”