Baseball: Late turnaround stings as Antioch falls short

Coach Chris Malec was as stunned as any member of the Antioch baseball team Monday afternoon in Naperville.

Making its deepest postseason advancment in program history, Antioch had a 6-run lead against Nazareth with three outs to go at the Class 3A North Central College supersectional.

But it all unraveled for Antioch in the Roadrunners' seventh inning.

Nazareth scored 7 runs in its final at-bat, and reliever Ryan Turgeon stranded the bases loaded in the Sequoits' half of the last inning to preserve a hard-to-fathom 10-9 victory.

The bottom of the seventh inning was the lone time Antioch failed to score.

"This is brand new territory for us," said Malec. "We had never won a sectional before. We had not even won a regional since I played here in 2002."

Antioch had its season come to a heart-wrenching end at 20-14.

Nazareth (23-13) advanced to the Final Four and will meet downstate Morton, which pulled away from Stillman Valley 16-8 in the Rock Island supersectional, in a 10 a.m. Friday state semifinal at Joliet Route 66 Stadium.

The Roadrunners' improbable comeback victory truly spoiled special days from John Petty and Jack Gillespie for Antioch.

The duo combined for half of the Sequoits' 12 hits, with 3 apiece.

Antioch scored the first 4 runs of the game as Petty, the Sequoits' leadoff lefty, hit a bases-loaded 2-run double off the left-field wall in the bottom of the second.

"It's something I kind of learned naturally," Petty said of his opposite-field approach with runners in scoring position. "The next thing is seeing the pitch and getting it done."

Gillespie, meanwhile, delivered three separate baserunners with his three run-scoring singles.

"We have gotten contributions from many different contributors," Petty said.

Antioch starter Colin Wieska suffered one of the most painful no-decisions in recent memory.

In the Roadrunners sixth, Wieska deflected a shot off his lower right leg to record an out and - more importantly - quell a serious potential big inning by Nazareth.

Antioch appeared destined for a Friday date in Joliet when scoring in its sixth consecutive inning to take a 9-3 lead into the top of the seventh.

But the Nazareth seventh-inning uprising began when Andrew McKenna followed a Zach Carmignani leadoff triple with a long home run to right field.

Nazareth collected 4 subsequent walks, and 3 of the ensuing runs scored on either wild pitches or a game-changing balk.

Carmrignani tied the game 9-9 with a two-out single, and Nazareth took its only lead of the game on a booted infield grounder.

"When you bring a new pitcher into a game (Antioch used three in the seventh inning), you can expect some jitters," Malec said.

"We all wanted this," Turgeon said after inducing a short fly and strikeout to end the game. "It was very emotional."

"You can't hang your heads about it," said Petty.