Baseball: Dir, Carmel a hit in regional final

Getting their bats going early and often was the key for the Carmel Catholic baseball team Saturday afternoon in the Class 3A Vernon Hills regional championship game.

Behind a 2-run homer and a 2-run double by senior Charley Dir, the No. 2-seeded Corsairs built a 10-3 lead over the No. 9 host Cougars after three innings before coasting to a 10-4 victory for the regional crown.

Carmel (21-10) next meets Antioch on Wednesday in the Chicago Lakeview sectional semifinals at 7:30 p.m.at Kerry Wood Cubs field.

Vernon Hills (12-20-1) fell behind 4-0 in the bottom of the first as Vernon Hills pitcher Danny Wizceb hit Austin Ehren with his first pitch of the game.

Then with one out, junior Drew Wiegman's RBI single to left field scored Ehren for a quick 1-0 lead.

Dir followed with a two-out, 2-run home run to left field before teammate Sean Lynch tripled to center and scored on a wild pitch for a 4-0 lead.

The Cougars did bounce back against winning pitcher Ben Wiegman in the top of the second as a one-out double by lone senior starter Kyle Fasbinder got the rally going.

Then junior Jake Morris was hit by a pitch before a past ball put runners on second and third with two outs. But a crucial infield throwing error by the Corsairs led to two runs, cutting the lead to 4-2.

The Corsairs struck again in the bottom of the second when Jake Adams reached base on catcher's interference, Ehren was hit by pitch again, and Drew Wiegman reached on a key fielder's choice with all runners safe and the bases loaded.

A sacrifice fly by Lukas Galdoni, and a 2-run double by Dir (3-for-4) boosted the lead to 7-2 after two innings.

"We came out and tried to bring all the intensity we could so it was a good win," said Dir, whose team also won a regional title last year. "In the first inning everybody was swinging it well, and we can be a dangerous team if everybody is on."

Vernon Hills kept fighting back as lead-off hitter Tony Brown walked, stole second and third base, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Caleb Thomson to cut the lead to 7-3.

But Carmel pretty much put the game out of reach in the bottom of the third when it scored 3 more runs on 2 hits.

Jimmy Tarzon walked to start the inning before Brandon Banker walked against Vernon Hills reliever Thomson.

Ehren came through with a 2-run double to right-center before Ben Wiegman's RBI single made the score 10-3.

"All the credit goes to them, they came out and executed, and we were not as sharp as we would like to have been," said Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki, whose team had 4 errors. "Carmel made us pay, we gave them some extra outs, and they took advantage of that too."

Brown (3 walks, 2 runs) walked and wound up scoring on a fielder's choice RBI by Quinn Geren in the top of the fifth to account for the final score.

"Charley (Dir) is seeing the ball really well, and he answered the call," said Carmel assistant coach Joe May, whose team had 8 hits overall. "It was great to see the bats come alive, we didn't hit too well against Richmond-Burton."

"Overall he (Ben Wiegman) looked good, he walked too many guys, and to be effective he has to be around the zone," added May. "If our pitching is on and our offense is going we can beat anyone, we just have to make that happen."