Baseball: Calmly, Murphy does it for Mundelein

Even when Libertyville's Micah Holzworth took him deep, even when Tim Jean flirted with a game-tying homer in the bottom of the seventh, even when he wild-pitched the tying run to third, Brendan Murphy never flinched.

Mundelein's unflappable lefty, whose almost every move on the diamond this spring has been scrutinized by MLB scouts, never worried.

"I knew our defense was going to play well," Murphy said. "And I trusted our guys with the bats."

Even when Libertyville swept a three-game series from Mundelein in early May en route to the North Suburban Conference championship, the Mustangs never lost faith.

They were rewarded Thursday. Murphy's 10-strikeout, complete-game effort and timely hitting late produced a 4-3 win for the Mustangs over their archrival in a Class 4A semifinal of the Glenbrook South sectional in sunny Glenview.

No. 3 Mundelein (32-6) advanced to its fifth sectional final in six years (2-2 record). The Mustangs will play No. 4 Warren (29-9) at 10 a.m. Saturday.

"We came into the (sectional semifinal) as underdogs," said Mundelein catcher Mason Schaller, whose RBI single in the sixth snapped a 2-2 tie. "They expected to beat us again. They spanked us earlier in the year. We just played with confidence, like we had nothing to lose."

No. 2 Libertyville, which finished 30-7, mustered just 4 hits off Murphy.

"Our mind set (going into the game) was that we just got to play like we always play," said Holzworth, Libertyville's junior right fielder. "Murphy's a great pitcher, and he played great."

Murphy said the Wildcats "hit me around" when he faced them a month ago. He credited his better performance Thursday to better command and harder velocity. The Arizona State signee started the seventh inning with just 78 pitches thrown and his team up 4-2.

"So I felt really good," Murphy said. "I wasn't tired."

But Murphy walked Jackson Petersen to start the inning, firing up Libertyville's dugout, which got even louder when Jean hit a towering flyball to left-center. The left fielder slipped, Jean hustled for a double, and the Wildcats had runners on second and third with none out.

That resiliency from the NSC champs was nothing new.

"Never at any point in the year were we losing in a game where I thought we weren't going to win it," Libertyville coach Matt Thompson said. "Even today."

In a jam with his team's lead in jeopardy, Murphy got back-to-back strikeouts, before uncorking a wild pitch to make it a one-run game. Then with Jean on third - and Will Michalski warming up in the Mundelein bullpen - Luke Plunkett hit a tricky hopper to first baseman Steven Sanchez. The 6-foot-7 Sanchez ranged to his right to snag the ball and flip it to Murphy at first for the final out, setting off a sectional-final-like celebration on the field.

"(Scouts) have been even coming when he's not pitching, just to check out his attitude, see how good a teammate he is," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said of Murphy. "So when he's got second and third and nobody out, he doesn't feel that very much. That's what separated him the last three years. His composure on the mound is outstanding."

Libertyville junior Riley Gowens, who was victimized by 3 walks and 2 errors in a 2-run second, struck out six and walked six in 5 innings. Thompson pulled Gowens after he walked Magee leading off the sixth.

"He was in trouble in a few innings," Thompson said of his starter. "Even on guys he was getting out, he wasn't always ahead in the count. He didn't have many innings where he had limited pitches. That's tiring."

Magee wound up scoring the go-ahead run when Schaller singled into right field off Colin Fields, putting Mundelein up 3-2.

"I was just looking for something that I could hit, and I found a hole," Schaller said.

Magee, who walked his first three times up, provided a huge insurance run with an RBI single in seventh, an inning that started with Sanchez (2-for-3) pulling a long double to right field.

Libertyville had erased its 2-0 deficit when Holzworth hit a 2-run homer to left field in the third.

"I left a slider up in the zone," Murphy said. "Good hitters hit mistakes."

"I thought the (left fielder) caught it," Holzworth said of his first varsity homer. "I didn't even know it was going to go."

Murphy's troubles in the third weren't over. Plunkett singled, Ryan Greenberg walked, and Brant Kym bunted both runners up. But Murphy ended the threat with a swinging strike three and called-third.

"I was fired up (all game)," Murphy said. "My adrenaline was going. The second I left the house, I was zoned in."