Zahn, Warren connect against Fremd

Early in the season, Warren leadoff hitter Brad Zahn was making good contact with the ball.

But far too often, the balls he hit ended up in the gloves of opposing fielders.

"It felt like I was having some bad luck," Zahn said. "Sometimes it was a little frustrating. You're swinging it good, you're hitting it good, you're hitting it hard, but you're just hitting it at someone.

"But you just keep grinding and telling yourself that sooner or later, they'll get through. And you'll get it between (the fielders)."

Zahn got better at that as the season went on, and he perfectly placed one of his hits on Thursday when he rocketed a single in between two Fremd fielders in regional semifinal action in Gurnee. That gave the host Blue Devils some clutch offense.

With Warren clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, Zahn drove in a run with a hit between the left fielder and the centerfielder. It was part of a 3-run inning for Warren that paved the way for a 7-3 victory.

The Blue Devils (24-12) will face Prospect on Saturday in the regional championship game.

"Lately, we've been losing a few games by one run and other teams were getting clutch hits, and I kept on telling our guys to keep believing in themselves and keep thinking positive and it's going to happen.

"And today, we had great opportunities with runners in scoring position. I can't say enough about Brad Zahn. He can be pretty hot, but some of the balls he hits hard can be right to people and all of a sudden it's caught for an out. It was great to see what he did today."

Chris Mathieu followed Zahn with a single into left field that brought in 2 runs. The Blue Devils also scored 2 runs in both the second and third innings, which gave them a 4-0 lead until Fremd finally scored in the fifth inning.

"I like pitching with the lead a lot more," Warren starting pitcher Andrew Hill said with a smile. "I was just trying to throw groundball outs and put my trust in my defense."

The Warren defense hit some rough spots and got tagged with 4 errors. But Hill (4-4 on the mound) got the Blue Devils out of several jams with his pitching.

Fremd left seven baserunners stranded.

"We had opportunities to score and we couldn't come up with the big hit, and they did. I thought that was the difference in the game," Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "We had them on the ropes a little bit, but we couldn't keep it going."

After falling behind 4-0 to Warren, which scored 2 runs in the second on a 2-RBI double by Jake Falsih and 2 runs in the third on a 2-RBI double by Michael Rosenberg, Fremd rallied in the fifth.

Cody Patenaude opened the inning with a walk and then Kaz Higuchi drove him in on the next at-bat with a double. Higuchi scored later in the inning.

The Vikings (16-16) also scored on an error in the sixth inning to cut Warren's lead to 4-3.

But Warren came right back in the bottom half of the inning and got an insurance run and then some.

"Today we got the clutch hitting," Smothers said. "And when you do that, you win ballgames."