Baseball: Aurora Christian, Harvest win 1A regionals; Cary-Grove's Sutherland gets win No. 600
Aurora Christian and Harvest Christian each won their Class 1A baseball regional championship games Monday and will face each other in the Harvest Christian sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Judson University in Elgin.
Elgin Academy, which won the Walther Christian regional on Saturday, plays Somonauk in the 4:30 p.m. semifinal Wednesday.
Aurora Christian 15, Newark 6: Eric Hernandez had 3 hits with an RBI and Tanner Dissell scattered 7 hits with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks as the Eagles (23-8) won their own regional title. Ethan Stoneberg added a triple and 2 RBI for AC while Jake Kuntzendorf had 2 hits with a double and 3 RBI, Dissell had 3 hits with a double and 3 RBI and Clark Turek added a double.
Harvest Christian 6, Luther North 0: Drew Lewis tossed a 4-hitter with 9 strikeouts and 1 walk as the Lions (29-5) won the Luther North regional title in a game played at Judson. Zach Pawelek had 2 hits with a double and 2 RBI for Harvest, Grant Young added a double and Joey Pepper had 2 RBI.
Jacobs 3, Elgin 0: Brad Demkovich went 5⅓ innings allowing 5 hits with 10 strikeouts and 1 walk as Jacobs (19-17) won this opening round game in the Class 4A Jacobs regional. Matt Camp came on for the save for the Golden Eagles. Liam Oreskovich had 2 hits and an RBI while Adam Kale and Cory Dennison also drove in runs for Jacobs, which plays McHenry in Thursday's semifinals. Elgin, which committed 4 errors in the game, finished the season 5-27. Kyle Coates was the tough-luck loser for the Maroons despite allowing just 6 hits and 1 earned run.
Downers North 4, West Aurora 3: The Blackhawks' season came to an end when Downers North scored 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to eliminate West Aurora (10-22) from the Class 4A Plainfield South regional. Connor Palmby and JJ Rivera each had doubles for West Aurora.
Cary-Grove 11, Lakes 6: Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland won his 600th game as the Trojans (24-9) won this nonconference game. Tyler Pennington (2 hits, 2B, 2 RBI) and Ben Levicki (2B, RBI) each had doubles for C-G, as did Collin Walsh.
South Elgin 4, Geneva 2: Nate Gomez had 3 hits including a double as South Elgin (21-4, 19-2) won its final Upstate Eight game of the season. Kevin Barry added a double and an RBI for the Storm while Nathan Smith and Patrick Keaty each drove in runs. Adam Walker earned the win with 4 innings of relief. He allowed 3 hits with 6 strikeouts and no walks. Jack Olson had 2 hits for Geneva (19-11, 15-7) with Dylan Baer and Jeremy Davis each adding a double.
CL South 8, Richmond-Burton 2: In a nonconference game, Kyle Hetherington, Henry Tipton, Noah Tyrell and Nick Wolski (2 hits, 2 RBI) each had doubles for the Gators (29-5). Eddie Cubit was the winning pitcher.
Buffalo Grove 2, Huntley 1: Joe Rizzo had 2 hits and Jeff Heinrich added a double for Huntley (28-6) in this nonconference loss.