Baseball: Glenbard West tops Bartlett in 9 innings
It has to be considered a classic when members of the losing team call it the greatest baseball game in which they've played.
No. 10 Glenbard West pulled off a 6-5, nine-inning regional semifinal victory at No. 8 Bartlett on Thursday, but nothing came easy.
Glenbard West (14-20) scored twice on Kevin Spencer's double in the top of the ninth to snap a 4-4 tie, but Bartlett (18-13) drew within 6-5 in the bottom half, helped by 2 Glenbard West infield errors to open the inning.
The Hilltoppers made amends for those defensive miscues when 6-foot-2, junior right-handed reliever Sam Fenske induced a groundball off Eric Johansen's bat to shortstop Jack Campanella. He flipped the ball to second baseman Kyle Engstrom, who fired to first baseman Grant Lalla to complete a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
"A 6-4-3 is the perfect way to end it," Glenbard West coach Andy Schultz said. "We missed a couple of opportunities in that inning defensively and it looked like it was going to come back to haunt us, but those two middle guys have been really good for us."
The victory advances Glenbard West to Saturday's Class 4A regional final against No. 18 Conant (15-18), which upset No. 2 St. Charles East 2-1 on Wednesday. The Hilltoppers will make their second regional title-game appearance in Schultz's four seasons.
"We were expecting to play St. Charles East but things can go either way in the playoffs," Engstrom said. "We're going to try to bring our best game against Conant and try to win a regional championship for the first time in a while."
Glenbard West scored three times in the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie as Spencer and Sam Kaske drove in runs against Bartlett starting pitcher Max Smithberg.
The Hawks scored twice in their half of the fifth to get within 4-3, keyed by David Jaske's single. They seemed poised to tie the game with a runner on third with one out, but Scott Ruedell's line drive was speared by diving Glenbard West third baseman Andrew Zienty. He tagged the bag after his dive to double off the runner and end the threat.
Undeterred, Bartlett drew even in the sixth. Center fielder Ben Fisher led off with an infield single, took second on a wild pitch by Kaske and scored on a one-out single by a fist-pumping Martin Moreno.
Fenske and Bartlett reliever Ryan Sharko held the offense down for the next two innings as tension built. The Hilltoppers finally broke through in the ninth. They drew consecutive walks to open the inning, both of which later scored on Spencer's double to right field off reliever Tyler Yang, his second double this season.
"I've had a rough year all year," said Spencer, batting .275 with 9 RBI. "I haven't been able to pull through for my teammates, but I came through that time and it felt really good."
Bartlett loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs and pulled within 6-5 when Fenske hit Jaske with a one-out pitch. Fenske then induced the game-ending double-play grounder that sent the Hilltoppers into celebration mode, though it was the kind of memorable game both teams could celebrate.
"That was probably the best game I've ever played in," said Jaske, who had 2 of Bartlett's 7 hits and drove in 2 runs. "I mean, it was a fun game. Best of luck to those guys."
"It was a fantastic game on both ends," first-year Bartlett coach Devin Rosen said. "When the other team is saying how great the game is between innings to the other team, you know it's a good game."