Baseball: Harvest Christian falls in 1A sectional

The sting from a 3-2 loss to Walther Christian at the Class 1A Harvest Christian sectional semifinals on Thursday will last a little while for the Harvest Christian baseball team.

But before long the Lions will start looking forward to next year and that setback will be a distant memory because there is a lot to look forward to in the near future.

In just the program's second year the Lions improved by leaps and bounds under new coach Jeff Halter, winning 19 games after just 6 victories a year ago. That was with just two seniors on the squad. Thursday's lineup featured five sophomores and three freshmen.

'Nobody likes to lose, but we can't be disappointed after all the things we accomplished this year," Halter said. "With as young as we are nobody expected us to be where we are at. We have certainly turned some heads. This loss is a great teaching moment for our young kids and will only expedite the learning process."

The Lions' starting pitcher on Thursday, Drew Lewis, is one of those sophomores that make up the youthful core of this up and coming team.

"The difference this year was we all came together as a team and we were pulling on the same rope," Lewis said. "The freshmen coming up made huge contributions and the coaching staff was great. This game will be in the back of our minds because we want to come out even stronger next year.'

The Lions (19-13) had scored a combined 30 runs in their two regional wins, but were held to just 3 hits by Walther Christian junior right-hander Frankie Garcia.

"He was throwing a lot of off speed stuff," Lewis said. "We see a lot of fastball pitchers, so it kind of threw us off."

Harvest trailed 1-0 and 2-1 but rallied to tie it both times, first on a double steal of home by Zach Pawelek in the second inning and then on a sacrifice fly from Jack Nohava that scored Joey Pepper in the fourth inning. Nohava had led off the inning with a single and reached third on a double by Lewis.

However, that was all the offensive highlights for the Lions. Walther (12-22), which will play Somonauk in Saturday's sectional final, took the lead for good 3-2 on an unearned run in the fifth inning.

Lewis went 6 innings and took the hard-luck loss for the Lions. He gave up 3 runs, 2 earned, on 10 hits while striking out 3 batters and walking just 1.