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St. Charles East advances with second win over Libertyville

With a repeat opponent, the last thing St. Charles East's baseball team wanted was repeat drama.

The Saints, after dropping a game earlier in the day, staved off elimination and advanced into the Phil Lawler Summer Classic semifinals with Tuesday's 17-6 six-inning victory over Libertyville at Lisle's Benedictine University.

St. Charles East faces Lincoln-Way North at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Benedictine with a berth in the title game on the line. Benet plays Marist in the first semifinal at 5 p.m.

"Our approach changed the second game," said Saints designated hitter Monty Carbonell. "The first game we were all real tentative. Everybody was kind of nervous. But the second game we played our game. We went up there and hit the ball hard and had a good game."

St. Charles East managed only 1 hit in Tuesday morning's 2-0 loss to Benet, a loss that forced the Saints into a rematch with Libertyville. St. Charles East beat the Wildcats 8-7 on Monday, but it took 6 runs in the top of the seventh to propel the Saints to a stunning victory.

No such magic was necessary in the second game with the Wildcats.

Five of Libertyville's runs were unearned including the go-ahead run in the bottom of the third on Nick Neumann's RBI ground out that gave the Wildcats a 4-3 lead. St. Charles East, however, sent 12 batters to the plate in the top of the fourth while seizing command with 7 runs and a 10-4 advantage.

Libertyville crept within 10-6 on Luke Plunkett's run-scoring fifth-inning ground out but the Saints again exploded with 7 runs in the sixth to put the game further out of reach.

Steve Abruzzo's 3 innings of relief of Keegan Kochis closed out the six-inning game for the Saints.

"We had no pitching today," said Libertyville coach Jim Schurr. "We gave them two big innings and you can't play at this level and give up those kind of runs and think you're going to win a ballgame."

Carbonell paced the Saints' offense by going 3-for-5 with a double, 5 RBI and a 3-run homer in the fourth inning. John Dellostritto sparked St. Charles East's first 7-run outburst with a squeeze bunt that scored 2 runs.

Both teams started their scoring with 3 runs in the second inning. Connor Burke's 2-run single keyed Libertyville's 3-run bottom of the second.

A sloppy game included 7 errors and 13 walks.

"It was not a pretty game by any means for both sides," said Saints coach Len Asquini. "But in the end we got some big hits and made some big plays that pushed that score up. Happy we get to play (Wednesday), and that was our goal."

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