Brambora, Glenbard South stay calm, win regional

Events conspired to try to fluster Glenbard South senior pitcher Dylan Brambora. Each time he resisted.

Brambora and the Raiders prevailed over Ridgewood 6-2 Monday at the Class 3A Glenbard South baseball regional final.

The game was originally scheduled to be played Saturday, but rain forced the two-day delay.

"I'm so relieved," Brambora said. "We scouted them on Wednesday. They did well. They hit the ball hard. We beat them once this season, but we were anxious for this game."

When catcher Kyle Carli suffered a pregame injury, untested sophomore Dan Opem got the call behind the plate. Pressed into service at the last minute, Opem caught six of the seven innings Brambora pitched, and the Raiders barely missed a beat.

"We had some adversity at the start of the game," Raiders coach Mike Riley said. "... The kid (Opem) we started here hadn't played a varsity inning all year long. He made a couple mistakes but for the most part did a pretty good job under the circumstances."

When a pair of Raiders errors in the fifth inning led to Ridgewood's 2 runs, Brambora got out of a second-and-third jam by striking out Ridgewood's cleanup hitter. He didn't allow a Ridgewood runner past second base in the sixth and seventh innings.

"We played six good innings of baseball," Riley said.

Brambora (7-2) finished with a 3-hitter. He struck out eight, walked three and hit a batter. Neither of the Ridgewood runs was earned.

"We didn't really hit that well offensively," Ridgewood coach Chris Uhle said. Give that kid (Brambora) credit on the mound. He did a good job mixing it up."

"My curveball was more consistent than usual, I think," Brambora added. "I was able to throw it for strikes most of the time. Yeah, I'd just throw strikes and let my defense make plays. My shortstop (Andrew Wrona) had a fantastic game turning doubles plays and fielding balls up the middle. And our catcher did well too."

None of the Glenbard South runs was earned either. The Raiders took advantage of 5 Rebels errors, needing just 5 hits to push their runs across. The Raiders broke a 2-2 tie with 4 unearned runs in the sixth inning.

"We just didn't make the plays at the end of the game," Uhle said. "Those are routine plays. We just didn't execute."

"That's their Achilles' heel, is they've kicked it a little this year," Riley added. "That's a talented team, to be honest with you. Their record doesn't really indicate the talent they have."

The Raiders (23-10) will play Benet at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in a Nazareth sectional semifinal.

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