Baseball: Final pitch goes IC Catholic's way
The sigh of relief instantly became a roar.
C.J. West notched a two-out strikeout with the bases loaded to preserve IC Catholic Prep's 6-5 victory over the host Sentinels in Monday's Class 2A Westmont regional championship baseball game.
The situation was tense as could be after Westmont's Joe Donovan launched a two-out, 2-run homer to dent a 6-3 deficit in the bottom of the seventh. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases for the Sentinels, but West kept his composure and ended the drama with a full-count swinging strikeout.
"We're a competitive team and we all want to win," said Knights starting pitcher Austin Reed, who struck out nine in 6 innings. "We love the playoffs. It's all for that end goal so we're just going to keep working."
Westmont (19-17) jumped to a 2-0 lead on a solo home run by Donovan, who finished the season with 16 homers, and starting pitcher Alex Marotta's third-inning RBI single.
West tied the game with a fifth-inning 2-run single, and then IC Catholic Prep (14-19) exploded for 4 runs in the top of the sixth. Matt Sutton singled in the go-ahead run and Paul Morris III added an RBI single.
After the Knights stranded five runners in four scoreless innings, they finally broke through with two big innings. Westmont's Shawn Kwasny narrowed the gap to 6-3 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
"Even though we were on the losing end, that's as good a game as you'll see in the regional championship," said Westmont coach D.J. Cocks. "We just came up a tad short. They did what they needed to do, and they're champions because of it."
The Knights, who won their second straight regional title, advance to the IC Catholic Prep sectional semifinals to face Holy Trinity at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Elmhurst.
"This is a good team, and it's just a matter of acting like it," said IC Catholic coach Frank DeAngelis. "We have kind of flipped a switch here lately. Hopefully that continues because you never know when it's going to be your last game."
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