Baseball: Sargent, Jacobs win sectional title
Jacobs baseball's resident Sargent-at-Arms again kept order in Saturday's 8-2 sectional final victory over Rockford Boylan in Cary.
Five days after he shut out hard-hitting Cary-Grove on 2 hits to win a regional championship, Ohio-bound senior Ryan Sargent held NIC-10 Conference champion Rockford Boylan (32-2-1) - a team averaging 6 runs per game - scoreless for 6 innings on 4 hits, and his teammates blew open a 2-0 game with 6 runs in the bottom of the sixth to seal it.
"I felt just like I did against Cary-Grove in the regional, just working the curveball and throwing the fastball on each side of the plate," said Sargent (5-2), who walked 2 and struck out 4 in an 81-pitch outing. "And my defense made great plays behind me."
In 2 playoff victories, Sargent has yielded only 6 hits in 13 scoreless innings, walked 3 and struck out 13.
"When their pitcher works ahead and gets two pitches over whenever he needs to, it's going to be a long day," Boylan coach Matt Weber said.
The sectional title is the second in three seasons for Jacobs (28-10). The Golden Eagles lost to Prairie Ridge in a 2014 sectional final. They advance to Monday's Class 4A supersectional at Rockford Aviators Stadium at 6:30 p.m. against Stevenson (27-11-1).
"I've got goose bumps right now. It's fun," said shortstop Matt Kozlak, who went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI.
Jacobs took a 1-0 lead with one out in the bottom of the first against Boylan right-hander Max Maney when Daniel Tenayuca singled to left field to drive in Kozlak from second base.
"I was just trying to put the ball in play, do whatever you can to scratch a run," Tenayuca said.
The score stayed that way until the fifth inning, though both teams left runners in scoring position in the fourth. The Golden Eagles failed to score in the fourth when a pickle play went awry and the runner at third was tagged out diving back to the base.
However, Sargent led off the fifth with a double to the wall in left center and scored on Kozlak's Baltimore chop over the third baseman's head to make it 2-0.
The Titans put two runners on in the sixth inning with one out, thanks to a single by leadoff hitter Alex Ciaccio and the second walk of the game by No. 3 hitter Will Troia. However, Sargent induced a flyball to center field from Andy Cropp and a groundball to shortstop from Maney to end the threat.
The Jacobs offense used the patient approach to blow the game open in its 6-run sixth. Five of the first six Golden Eagles to the plate drew walks from Boylan reliever Ian Parentice to expand the lead to 4-0. Kozlak then greeted reliever Peyton Durst with a 3-run double to make it 7-0.
"I was just trying to get a fastball, drive it,"Kozlak said, "and it turned out to put them away."
No. 3 hitter Owen Oreskovich followed with a run-scoring single for an 8-0 lead. It was the sixth time in 38 games Jacobs scored 8 or more runs.
"Every inning we had guys on and we were putting the ball in play," Jacobs fourth-year coach Jamie Murray said. "We felt it was just a matter of time before we just kicked that door in. That's been our M.O. the last few years: we get hot at the right time."
Murray said his starting pitcher against Stevenson will be either Casey Dennison (2-2), Ryan George (7-0) or Brenden Heiss (2-2), the latter of whom pitched for the first time since April 27 in the seventh inning. Heiss walked 2 and struck out 1 before he was relieved by Evan Liebau, who was touched for a 2-run double by Parentice. Tyler Jones then closed out the game for Jacobs with a strikeout.
The Golden Eagles hope to stay hot Monday with a berth in the Class 4A semifinals in Joliet on the line.
"We're rolling right now," Sargent said. "I just want things to keep going. Big game on Monday."