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Baseball: Lisle clobbers Chicago Academy in playoff opener

Now the real work begins.

Lisle's baseball team made quick work of Chicago Academy in Thursday's Class 2A Lisle regional semifinals, pounding the Cougars 17-0 in four innings to advance to the title game.

The fourth-seeded Lions (18-11) next face top-seeded St. Joseph in the regional final at 11 a.m. Saturday. While Lisle showed its mettle during the regular season in the Interstate Eight Conference, the Chargers emerged from the competitive Chicago Catholic League.

The Lions certainly don't expect another blowout victory, but they plan on coming out with the same fire.

"We came out with the attitude that this team could beat us," said Lions starting pitcher Zack Heidenry. "We took them seriously and knew we had to play our best. We feel real confident going into Saturday. If we swing the bat and make our plays, I think we'll be fine."

Heidenry set the tone with three groundball outs in the top of the first. He coaxed 10 grounders while retiring 12 of the 14 batters he faced in a 44-pitch 1-hitter.

The offense responded in the bottom of the first by raking four doubles and a triple in building a 7-0 lead. The Lions added 10 second-inning runs, taking advantage of 4 errors by the Cougars.

"Our strength is to get moving in the beginning and starting well," said Lions shortstop Emmett Malavia. "Any team we play, we play our hardest."

The Lions didn't know much about Chicago Academy coming into the game, which made their early focus even more important. The Lions sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning and 13 in the second.

Malavia, Heidenry, Damien Guerrero, A.J. Casmer and Jay McGrath all had 2 hits. McGrath and Connor Nigro drove in 2 runs.

"They got the job done today, and now let's see what we do on Saturday," said Lisle coach Pete Meyer. "No matter who our opponent is we've got to come out and play our game. It was nice to see them do that against a team we knew nothing about."

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