With clucth win, Jacobs knocks Montini out of Lawler Classic
Jacobs may have lost the first baseball matchup with Montini, but the Golden Eagles won the game that mattered most: the rematch.
Jacobs avenged Monday’s loss to the Broncos with Wednesday’s 4-2 elimination game victory in the Lawler Summer Classic at Benedictine University. The Golden Eagles face Lyons Township in the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in Lisle with a berth in the final on the line.
St. Laurence, which plays Joliet Catholic in Thursday’s first semifinal, beat Montini 13-3 in six innings Wednesday morning to set up Montini’s rematch with Jacobs.
Motivation wasn’t hard to find.
“This just shows our resilience and how we want to fight and we want to win every game,” said Jacobs junior first baseman Ben Murray. “We’re not going to get down after one loss. We wanted some payback. When you lose to a team once, you don’t want to lose to them again.”
Unlike Monday’s game, Jacobs snared a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Jordan Siegel’s two-out RBI single. Montini rallied to take a 2-1 fourth-inning lead on a run-scoring single from Rhett Wojkovich and an error, but the Golden Eagles surged from there.
Jacobs struck for 3 runs in the fifth inning, helped by run-scoring hits by Murray and Kenny Finn. The insurance run came in on an error.
“I didn’t particularly think we played our best baseball today,” said Jacobs coach Jamie Murray. “But I think we were resilient enough to have an opportunity to get the lead and hold on to it.”
Montini nearly added to its lead in the top of the fifth after putting runners on second and third with no outs — but reliever and winning pitcher Jake Jemmi escaped the jam and retired the final eight batters he faced to end the game.
A couple of rough innings earlier in the day against St. Laurence placed Montini in the must-win situation against Jacobs. The Vikings struck for 6 runs in the third inning and 4 runs in the fifth.
The game ended when the Broncos surrendered 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth, the 13th run scoring on a wild pitch. Austin Kline and Manny Georgitsis drove in runs for Montini, which scored once in the fourth and twice in the fifth.
“The ball didn’t bounce our way today,” said Montini coach Eric Scott. “That’s baseball. Sometimes, one day, it’s bouncing your way and the next day it’s not. It hurts, but we had a great summer and the kids got better every day. We’re real, real excited for next year.”