Baseball: Burlington Central blasts past Sterling for sectional title shot

Josh Noeska grin matched the thrill in his voice in describing his two of the four home runs that powered Burlington Central's 9-5 victory over Sterling in Wednesday's Class 3A Sycamore sectional semifinal.

"Hitting one out in the playoffs is especially satisfying, getting two, that's a forever memory," Noeska said. "It is such a sweet feeling."

Actually the evening was already memorable because those are the first two round-trippers for the senior whose teammates included several timely at-bats in their 11 hits.

The Rockets (28-9) will play Marmion for the sectional title after the Cadets beat Rockford Lutheran in Wednesday's second game. The game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday.

Sterling (22-11) capitalized on back-to-back errors in the bottom of the first to manufacture a 2-0 lead. However, the Rockets (28-9) responded in the top of the second with a Zach Schutta leadoff homer, and one out later, a single by Paddy McKermitt and a Matt Termini double.

Then came a towering sacrifice fly to left by Clay Milas to score McKermitt.

"At that point I just wanted to make sure to get the runner in," Milas recalled. "For that situation I did the job."

Sterling starter Tyler William appeared annoyed to have the lead lost and proceeded to walk a batter, and plunk two others to force in a go-ahead run for a lead Central would never relinquish.

In the top of the fourth, Milas' task was to help the Rockets build their advantage and he did that sending the ball over the left-field fence.

"He had me down 1-2 but I was expecting a fastball and when he grooved it I really connected," Milas said. "It felt good. When you hit one so hard, there's a moment you can see the backspin on the ball as it goes skyward."

One out later, David Lauber singled to center prior to Noeska's initial homer that made it a four-run lead. Tagged with the loss, William (6-3) was replaced in the fourth by Noah Sullivan.

"(Josh) has been hitting the ball better and today he really got under a couple," Central coach Kyle Nelson noted. "With a good team like we have, even down two early I was still confident. Actually Brandon (Van Buren) didn't throw bad at all. Outside of a couple hard ground balls, he kept them in check."

The Rockets lefty improved to 5-2 on the mound and had a trio of strikeouts before Sterling pushed home a run in the fourth and used a bloop single to get two runners on with just one out. That's when right-hander Milas took over and McKermitt snared a sizzling liner before the shortstop alertly threw to first to end that threat by doubling off a base runner.

Noeska's second homer in the top of the sixth made it 7-3 before the Golden Warriors began thinking comeback thanks to a laser hit by William.

However Central countered by negating those two runs with a pair of their own in the top of the seventh.

"We get to the fifth or later with a lead, it's 'J-Rod' time, but this time I suggested to them that we take his save opportunity away and we did," Nelson said.

Josh Rodriguez came on for the seventh and raced to first to take a throw for one out, forced a pop out to third, and then got a pitch past a third Sterling batter before Termini snared the dropped third strike and got the put-out at first.

Both teams were fresh off ending regional championship droughts. Sterling's last regional plaque was from 2011 and the latest loss marked the fourth time the Golden Warriors failed to gain a sectional triumph.

The Rockets' most recent regional success was in 2013, but now Central can try to capture sectional hardware for the first time since 2012, when that campaign ended in a supersectional loss.