St. Charles East completes shutout over Waubonsie
When Steve Podany was a freshman at St. Charles East two years ago, he sat in the stands at the state baseball tournament and watched the Saints lose in the Class 4A semifinals to Libertyville.
Now a senior to be, Podany is going to get a chance to play against Libertyville in next week's Phil Lawler Summer Classic state tournament. The right-hander finished 6 innings of scoreless pitching Friday, leading the Saints to an 8-0 victory over Waubonsie Valley for a regional title that took two days to complete because of Thursday's rain.
Podany threw 38 pitches and 3 1/3 innings of shutout baseball on Thursday, then came back with 2 2/3 more innings Friday before Niko Klebosits pitched the seventh.
"After the partial game I went home and iced, ran a little, hoped my arm wouldn't be sore and it wasn't. Felt great," Podany said. "We are really glad to go downstate and face Libertyville. They have been our nemesis for a little bit. It will be interesting."
This is the seventh time St. Charles East (27-7) has reached the summer state tournament. The Saints also qualified in 2010 and 2013, and they won the summer state title in 1977 and 2001.
The Saints play Libertyville at noon Monday at North Central College. The winner advances to Tuesday; the loser comes back at 5 p.m. Monday for an elimination game.
The semifinals are scheduled for 5 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Benedictine University and the championship game is 7 p.m. Thursday.
"I thought this week their approach has been more focused," Saints coach Len Asquini said. "They thought the baseball season was at the end and they didn't want that to happen. They wanted to continue playing. We get a few more games next week which is outstanding."
The game resumed Friday with 1 out in the top of the fourth inning and the Saints leading 3-0. Podany threw 6 pitches to get out of that inning as the Warriors changed their approach at the plate.
"Second day we were trying to attack him earlier," Warriors leadoff hitter Nick Santoro said. "Day before we were looking at a lot of first-pitch strikes. He worked fast. It was a challenge to hit him. We were having a hard time catching up to him."
The Warriors' best chance to score came in the fifth. Podany retired Santoro on a fly ball to left to strand 2 runners.
Podany finished with 6 strikeouts in his 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, no walks and no runs.
"He was just as sharp," Asquini said. "The umpire said his curve ball was just as sharp (as Thursday). He's a bulldog and it was great to see him come through for us."
The Saints broke the game open with 5 runs in the sixth. Corbin Marucco started the rally by hustling to second to turn what looked like a single to left field into a double.
Podany ripped a line drive down the right field line to score Marucco. Jimmy Dale and Zach Rupp also had RBI doubles in the inning, and Joe Sciarrino plated the final run with an infield single.
"The bats came alive and gave us a little cushion," Asquini said. "We got everybody a piece of this."
Despite the loss Waubonsie Valley (12-10-4) found plenty of positives in reaching the regional championship game.
"We didn't get anything going offensively," Warriors coach Bryan Acevedo said. "We've got a lot coming back from spring season for next year. They all weren't here this week. We had quite a few kids step up and show us what they can do. It's kind of encouraging moving forward. We have more depth than we thought originally."