Westminster Christian 4, Dakota 0
Westminster Christian baseball fans were treated to an afternoon of good, old-fashioned, country hardball at Warriors Field Wednesday afternoon under bright, sunny skies.
Make that really bright, really sunny skies.
Warriors senior Ben Palmer tied his career high with 14 strikeouts and visiting Dakota misplayed 3 balls in the outfield in the third inning -- two of which were the direct result of blinding sunshine in the eyes of its right fielder -- to lift Westminster Christian to a 4-0 victory in a Class 1A sectional semifinal played in Elgin.
The Warriors (25-9) advanced to Saturday's 11 a.m. sectional championship game against the winner of today's game between East Dubuque and Immaculate Conception.
Immaculate Conception defeated Westminster Christian 8-4 on April 28.
Palmer (7-3) simply dominated Dakota (19-3).
Pitching on three days rest after he tossed a complete-game against Alden-Hebron in Saturday's regional title game, the left-hander dazzled the Indians with a sharp-breaking curveball and a fastball he said was a tick faster than the one he took to the mound last Saturday.
"I just tried to rear back and throw today," Palmer said. "I felt really confident out there. I knew the defense was going to make the next play even though we made a couple of errors. My main focus was to throw the ball where people could hit it."
Yet, the Indians still couldn't hit it very well. They managed only 4 knocks against Palmer, who walked one.
Likewise, the Westminster offense struggled against Dakota junior Robert Lizer. Carter Ward drove in Casey Schuring with a sacrifice fly in the first inning against Lizer, who employed a good curveball to limit the Warriors to 3 hits in his 6 innings of work.
However, 2 Dakota errors and a ball lost in the sun allowed Westminster to tack 3 runs onto its 1-run lead in the third inning.
With one out, Tyler Beachler sent a line drive to right field, but the sinking ball managed to avoid the raised glove of Dakota's right fielder.
One out later, cleanup hitter Cory Hodge lifted a catchable flyball to left-center field. However, the baseball glanced off the left-fielder's mitt for an error, one that had nothing to do with the sun.
Beachler scored on the error to make it 2-0.
Lizer subsequently beaned No. 5 hitter Chadd Schroy with a pitch, which brought Brandon Siewert to the plate. The senior lifted a high fly to right-center field. The ball was lost in the sun and fell for a 2-run single because Hodge and Schroy were in motion with two outs.
"I'm going to have nightmares about those popups for weeks," Dakota coach Britton Kauffman said. "We didn't score so I'm not going to say the game was going to be different without those 2 hits, but those hurt. Those hurt."
Westminster was just happy to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in Class 1A regardless of the manner of advancement.
"It probably wasn't the prettiest game," Warriors coach Jeff Moeller said, "but you take advantage of any breaks you can get."