Baseball: Nilles home run makes Willowbrook a walkoff winner
Jack Nilles last had an at-bat on May 10.
He must have been saving himself for this moment.
The Willowbrook junior led off the bottom of the seventh inning by launching a pinch-hit home run to give the Warriors a 6-5 walkoff victory over Glenbard East in Thursday's Class 4A Bartlett sectional semifinals.
Warriors coach Vic Wisner noticed Nilles ripping the ball during batting practice. With the wind blowing out to the right-field fence only 315 feet away, Wisner took a chance on Nilles' left-handed stick coming off the bench.
The move paid off when Nilles belted the third pitch he saw. He'll take the mound at 11 a.m. Saturday in the sectional title game against Lake Park, a 6-2 winner over Marmion.
"I was a little nervous so I just stepped out and relaxed," Nilles said. "It's been a couple weeks since I hit. We took some batting practice before the game today and I was hitting them out. I felt good."
Nine runs were scored in the opening inning after Jeremy Johnson's 3-run homer for Glenbard East (25-13) was answered by Trevor Jaloszynski's grand slam for Willowbrook (20-14) in the bottom of the first. The Warriors nursed a 5-4 lead until the fourth inning when the Rams' Jack Crackel tied it with a solo shot.
"Both teams swing the bat and every out was earned," said Wisner, whose team vies for its first sectional championship since 1973. "You could flip us into their uniforms and I don't know if you'd know the difference. I think both teams do all the things that I really like."
Despite the first-inning stagger it was a gutty outing for Warriors sophomore starting pitcher Dax Meyer and Glenbard East counterpart Taylor Westerhoff. Both went the distance.
"I knew if I could keep them at five, my team could put up more," said Westerhoff, who had a first-inning RBI single. "That's kind of been the story all year. We've been waiting for our inning. Crackel came through big-time."
Glenbard East tried to score the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning with runners on first and second and one out. The Warriors turned a 6-4-3 fielder's choice with the runner safe at first, but the Rams runner that started at second base rounded third and tried to score.
Willowbrook first baseman Mason Kamp fired home to catcher Dan Gusel to easily get the runner at home and complete the inning-ending double play.
"Our guys battled, and they battled," said Rams coach Joel Pelland, whose program won its first regional title since 2005. "Unfortunately one team has to lose and that was us. But I couldn't be more proud of this group and what they've done this year."
Follow Kevin on Twitter