Baseball: Montini goes big in sixth inning to beat Glenbard South
Even with the situation at its most dire, Montini's baseball team insisted on being greedy.
The Broncos exploded for 8 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for Saturday's 9-7 victory over Glenbard South in the Class 3A Glenbard South regional title game in Glen Ellyn.
All 9 runs came with two outs, a trend that became stunning in the pivotal sixth inning. Not only did Montini (20-13) take a lead on Alex Weisshaar's 3-run double, the Broncos actually grabbed an insurance run and went up 9-7.
Reliever Michael Sclafani, who pitched 2⅔ innings, retired the Raiders (19-15) in the top of the seventh to clinch the victory. Montini advances to the Nazareth sectional semifinals in Schaumburg to face Nazareth at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"Go big or go home, right?" Weisshaar asked. "While I was at bat I was scared out of my mind, but then I poked it. When we went to that seventh inning we knew we had it. We didn't want it to end here. We wanted to keep this going."
There was no chipping away for Montini, even with the bottom of the seventh still to come. The Broncos sent 12 batters to the plate in the sixth, drawing closer on RBI singles by Jake Karczewski, Sclafani and starting pitcher Ben Steiner.
It was a dramatic turn of events for Glenbard South, which seemed in control ever since a 4-run top of the first when Mike Paprota doubled in 2 runs and Mason Barnick followed with a 2-run homer.
The Raiders added on with a Jack Dupuis fourth-inning homer, then scored twice on Paprota's sacrifice fly and Barnick's run-scoring single in the fifth.
"We just didn't get that last out in that one inning," said Raiders coach Marco Eufrasio. "But this is a great group of guys and they played hard. To Montini's credit, they grinded it out. Those are fun games to play. Unfortunately we were on the wrong end of it."
Matt Pestel - one of nine batters to reach base in the sixth - singled home the Broncos' first run in the second inning.
"Really gritty win," said Montini coach Rich Janor. "Really proud of the way these guys fought back. I can't remember something that's been this exciting in a long time."
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