Putnam County 6, Immaculate Conception 2

Immaculate Conception took down two top-seeded baseball teams to win the program's first sectional title.

The upset magic finally ran out for the Knights on Monday with a 6-2 loss to Putnam County in the Class 1A Benedictine University supersectional in Lisle.

Facing a No. 1 seed for the third straight game, Immaculate Conception (14-19) fell behind 5-0 in the fourth inning and couldn't cap a sixth-inning rally against the Panthers (19-8), who will play Routt Catholic in Friday's state semifinals in Joliet.

"To string together this many wins in the playoffs, I'm pretty happy with the way we played," said Knights coach Dan Holleman. "We would have liked to have seen some of those hits fall, but that's baseball."

The Knights, after several near misses down the line earlier in the game, ultimately had a couple of key hits fall in the sixth inning. Jose Godinez and Bobby Perrone singled home runs to narrow the gap to 5-2.

The margin nearly shrank more when the Knights tried to score by tagging up on a flyout to right, but Putnam County's Evan Smith fired a strike to pitcher Ben Fogle (6-3), who relayed the throw home to get Rob Peachey at the plate for an inning-ending double play.

After the Panthers got a run back in the top of the seventh on a wild pitch, Fogle retired the side in the bottom of the frame to send his team into the semifinals for the first time since 1998.

Fogle, who went 4-for-4 with an RBI, struck out five, walked six and allowed 3 hits.

"This is huge," said Fogle, who allowed 2 runs in his previous 3 starts. "We're making a big run, but we've still got a road ahead."

Putnam County took a 1-0 lead two batters into the game when Fogle led off with a single and scored on Kevin Fay's double to the left-field fence.

Knights pitcher Danny Muisenga (4-5) rolled through the next two innings, but the Panthers came alive with two outs in the fourth inning after a pivotal error. Four runs wound up scoring on hits by Josh Morrasy, Dallas Bogner and Fogle.

Immaculate Conception, which next season returns six starters in addition to Muisenga, was held to 1 hit until the sixth inning.

"I appreciate everything they've done," Holleman said of his graduating seniors. "We have a good core of players coming back. We'll move on from here and start looking forward to next year."