Baseball: DeVries homer gives Warren walk-off regional final win over St. Viator

He knew it.

As soon as he hit it.

Ryan DeVries knew that he had just made the biggest play of his baseball career and made Warren a regional champion, all with one swing. And all just in the nick of time.

Talk about flare for the dramatics.

With two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the eighth inning, DeVries ripped a solo home run over the center field fence to give host and top-seeded Warren a spine-tingling 4-3 victory over St. Viator in the Class 4A regional championship Saturday.

It is the Blue Devils' fifth straight regional championship.

"That was unbelievable, just an adrenaline rush," said DeVries, who was handed the home run ball by a fan shortly after he and his teammates went through the handshake line and celebrated with a raucous huddle.

"I missed the first two (pitches on strikes) but I got ahold of the last one. It feels good."

The home run was just the second of the season for DeVries. He was 0-for-2 with a walk in his previous three at-bats Saturday.

"I'm just at a loss for words," DeVries said.

Emotions were abundant though for the Blue Devils, who improved to 32-4 and now advance to Wednesday's St. Viator sectional semifinal at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg to face Fremd at 5 p.m. Fremd defeated Buffalo Grove 12-3 to win the Fremd regional.

Even Warren head coach Clint Smothers had himself a moment in the wake of his team's amazing finish.

He was wiping tears from his eyes, tears of happiness and pride as he watched his players celebrate.

"I'm a little emotional," Smothers said. "It's just a great group of kids."

According to Smothers, the Blue Devils have overachieved all season and exceeded every expectation.

Warren, the No. 1 team in the Daily Herald Top 20, is young and inexperienced. The Blue Devils had a mere eight innings of pitching returning from last year. And no big-time recruits to speak of.

"When we had about 28 wins, I had (a reporter) ask me, 'Can I get a list of your D-I commits?' And I said, 'We don't have any.' And then he said, 'Well, how about a list of any commits?' " Smothers said. "And I said, we don't have any of those either. And he was like 'You've got to be kidding.' But the thing is, there are no 'me guys' on this team at all. It's all about the team, it's all about what they can do to win. These guys pick one another up, we win together and lose together.

"It's just a special group and in my 24 years coaching, this is one of the most special groups I've coached. We had no expectations of doing this well, so this is just crazy. These guys believe in themselves and they compete in every game. It's been so fun."

Warren, which also overachieved to win the North Suburban Conference title with a 13-1 record, took an early 1-0 lead when leadoff hitter Casey Cobe got on with a single and eventually scored on a passed ball. That lead ballooned to 3-0 when Brad Vodraska, who started the game at third base but finished the game on the mound, got the win to move to 7-1, as well as Thomas Kenney drove in runs with a single and double respectively in the third inning.

But St. Viator rallied over the fifth and sixth innings when Kevin Wilhite hit a solo home run in the fifth and Owen Hickey and Conor Warner scored in the sixth after getting on with singles.

"Nothing to hang our heads about," St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. "Warren is one of the best teams in the state. We had chances and opportunities to win but they made plays and came up with the biggest hit of the game.

"I feel bad for our kids, because they were working just as hard as the other team, and that's a tough way to lose. But what a great way to win. And if we're going to lose, I'd rather lose on something like that rather than us kicking the ball around (making errors)."

St. Viator closed its season with an 18-15 record. Warren denied the Lions a fourth straight regional title.

"It's very tough to go out like this," said Jack Mahoney, who was the starting pitcher for St. Viator and went the first seven innings. "But St. Viator has been pretty lucky the last two years of being on the good end of something like this. When you see the ball go over the fence like that, honestly, you're thinking about all the memories with your teammates and all the good times and how now it's just over. And that all kind of hits you at once. It stings a lot, but I still think we put together a really good year."