No joy for St. Francis in semifinal
St. Francis would have played baseball all day long if it had to. Actually, the Spartans wish Friday's Class 3A semifinal had kept going even longer.
St. Francis lost to Nazareth Academy 2-1 at Silver Cross Field in Joliet after three rain delays totaling more than three hours.
"I told the boys, I don't care if we have 10 delays," Spartans coach Nick Hall said. "You're in the state championships. Let this game last as long as possible. Soak it in. The last thing you want is an hour-and-15-minute ballgame and it's done. I said we're here, none of us have other plans, we're all excited to be here. If it lasts six hours or it lasts two hours, enjoy it all. Enjoy the rain delay."
The game finally ended about 5½ hours after the originally scheduled first pitch.
When the rain stopped, at least temporarily, and the game did finally get going, St. Francis got off to a good start. The Spartans scored their run in the top of the first inning.
Pitcher Jason Sullivan singled to right field and went to second base on left fielder Will Purdom's single to right. Sullivan scored on catcher Brett Whelton's single to center.
The Spartans (26-10) never again got a runner past second base against Nazareth starter Donald Kelly (9-2) or reliever Carson Bartels, who entered the game one batter into the seventh inning.
Kelly said the first two delays got to him a little bit.
"That fazed me a little bit," he said. "It's unorthodox. It's never really happened to me and you don't experience it very much. I guess that first inning my nerves were just tight, but thankfully we got out of it pretty well and came back to get the outcome we hoped for."
Nazareth tied the game in the third. Matt Flach drove in Joe Muscolino from second base with a single to right field.
"I thought both teams played excellent," Nazareth coach Lee Milano said. "I thought Donald was outstanding on the mound. I thought their kid (Sullivan) was outstanding. He competed well and we were able to find a way to get that second run."
Sullivan (11-2), a Central Michigan University recruit, took the loss. He threw 99 pitches over five innings, walking four and striking out four. Colin Wisted threw a 1-2-3 sixth inning for St. Francis.
The Roadrunners (32-8) found that second run in the fifth inning. Ryan Kramer led off with a double to left field that one-hopped the fence, then went to third base on a sacrifice bunt. Two walks later, Kyle Kane drove in Kramer with a sacrifice fly to left field.
Kramer hit .587 in East Suburban Catholic Conference play, Milano said.
"So hitting that ball hard and long is not a surprise because he's done that all year," he added.
The Spartans were left to rue missed opportunities.
"All year long we've been a team that does the little things: throws strikes, plays defense, we're tough outs. We were not that today, and in certain situations we had a lot of strikeouts looking against us, which we preach every day in practice not to do," said Hall, who saw Kelly strike out 11 Spartans.
But it was missed sacrifice bunts in the fifth and seventh innings that proved most costly.
The Spartans got their first two batters of the seventh inning on base, but they couldn't get them over. A two-strike bunt attempt was popped up, and Nazareth doubled the runner off second base.
"You've got runners on first and second base with (hitters) 3-4-5 coming up, it's just exactly what you want," Hall said.
The outcome, however, wasn't what the Spartans wanted. Weather permitting, they will play Morgan Park at 9 a.m. Saturday in the third-place game.
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