Baseball: Loyola grabs lead against Maine West

Maine West baseball coach Mike Randazzo was keenly aware of the challenges that facing 21-game winner Loyola Academy on their home field Wednesday would entail.

On top of that, Randazzo and his Warrior squad would need to do battle against another opponent - Mother Nature.

"We'll just wait this out," the Maine West coach said as he supervised his team's relocation aboard their team bus when a combination of late afternoon weather mischief that featured a lightning delay followed by a heavy downpour, postponing the contest until 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

When play resumes, ninth-seeded Maine West will trail No. 4 Loyola 7-2 with no outs in the bottom of the third at the Ramblers' Munz campus field in Glenview.

The Class 4A Loyola sectional's second semifinal matchup, which was No. 3 Evanston (20-10-1) against Lane Tech (20-9), also became a weather casualty and will now be played at approximately 6:45 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday's winners will meet at 10 .m. Saturday for the sectional title.

Things got off to a nice start for the Warriors (13-13) when Cory Scholler connected with the left-field foul pole to put the first run on the board at the top of the opening inning.

Then the home team took control with a 6-run tally in the bottom of the frame off West pitcher Josh Wastyn.

Loyola got a Trey Torain round-tripper to lead things off. The Ramblers then got a 2-run Will Jackson double. And finally, designated hitter Dan Hrvojevic had a 3-run homer.

The Warriors began to chip away at the lead when Jacob Cabral doubled in Justin Scholler to pull West within 6-2 in the top of the second frame.

Jackson connected on a solo homer to give Loyola its 7-2 lead before the complex's lightning detection system went off, with Hrvojevic was coming up to bat and sending both teams and spectators scurrying for cover.