Baseball: St. Francis finds a way out against Montini

Wednesday's baseball game between St. Francis and Montini became instantly electrified in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Then, in another instant, the Spartans restored order.

St. Francis let a late lead disappear in Lombard but held on for a 7-6 Chicago Catholic League crossover victory over Montini.

The Broncos (7-5) trailed 7-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh before Mike Sclafani doubled in a run to make it 7-4. Montini loaded the bases with two outs, and freshman Antoine Harris laced a double to left-center field.

Two runs scored easily, and the third runner was sent home in an attempt to tie the game. St. Francis left fielder Tanner Spinks, however, made a perfect throw to shortstop Matt Cooney, who relayed a strike to Liam Poe at the plate. The senior catcher easily tagged out the runner to end the game.

"It ended the exact same way when we played them as freshmen," said Poe, who also had 2 hits and 2 RBI. "A play at the plate, and it was beautiful. Everyone put in a great effort to come out of here with this win."

St. Francis (6-1) was in complete control for most of the game with junior pitcher Nick Kosmetatos, who didn't allow a baserunner until Alex Weisshaar's one-out solo homer in the bottom of the third. By that time the Spartans led 4-1, an advantage they extended to 7-1 with three unearned runs in the fourth and fifth inning.

The Spartans took advantage of Montini's three errors with timely hitting. In addition to Poe's two RBI singles, Kosmetatos and Cooney also singled in runs.

"We showed a lot of fight late in the game so we can hang our hat on that a little bit," said Montini coach Rich Janor. "But we made too many mistakes early in the game that we never recovered from."

Kosmetatos allowed 6 hits and 3 runs in 5⅔ innings. Jake Eberle and Jake Smith closed it out.

Poe, Cooney and Smith had 2 hits for St. Francis while Sclafani, Mike Koszewski, Harris and Nick Wind did the same for Montini. Jake Karczewski had a fifth-inning RBI single for the Broncos.

"Kosmetatos pitched well against a good-hitting team," said St. Francis coach Nick Hall. "It got a little close there at the end, but we executed well on that last play."

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