St. Edward tops Westminster Christian in last at-bat

Alex Lara ended a frustrating night of missed chances for the St. Edward baseball team by cashing in on the opportunity that mattered most.

After Westminster Christian tied Wednesday's nonconference meeting at Trout Park 4-4 in the top of the seventh inning, St. Edward's Karl Bibler led off the bottom of the inning with a double.

The next batter popped up to the catcher, which had fans wondering if St. Edward was about to add to its ignominious total of 12 men left on base through six innings, a total that included nine men stranded in scoring position.

Cue Lara, who made it a mute point by driving an opposite-field single to right field that drove in Bibler from second base for a 5-4 walk-off victory.

"With a runner on second, I was just trying to put it in play the opposite way to move him over or score," said Lara, who went 2-for-3 and walked twice. "They beat us last year in the regional so we wanted to show them we can beat them."

The game was a likely a playoff preview. If No. 4 St. Edward (8-16) gets by No 5 Christian Liberty Academy in a regional play-in game on Monday, the Elgin private schools would meet in a Class 2A Aurora Christian semifinal next Wednesday at Waubonsee Community College.

"We want to win every game we play," said Westminster Christian's Peter Hahn, who tied the game 3-3 in the fifth inning with a suicide squeeze bunt. "Luckily, we'll probably get another chance at the regional next week."

St. Edward grabbed a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth when Jack Tierney reached second on an error and later scored on David Groves' groundout.

However, Westminster Christian (14-16) knotted the game in the top of the seventh. Tyler Mamrot drew a one-out walk, advanced to third base on Frankie Anquilo's single to right field and scored on a wild pitch by Bibler, who entered the game in the seventh in relief of Patrick Costello, who limited the damage to 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 5 walks by striking out 5.

St. Edward coach Tim Dovichi was relieved to see the Green Wave, hitting .193 as a team, finally cash in after several missed opportunities.

"All those men left on base, including the bases loaded three times," Dovichi said, shaking his head. "A strikeout here, a groundball there. It's been the story of our season so it was good to come up with that hit to beat a good Westminster team."