Marmion clinches share of SCC title

Recovering from a slow start, Brian Burns finished the day like a champion Tuesday afternoon.

So did the rest of his Marmion teammates.

Burns (4-0), who fell behind 2-0 after throwing just 10 first-inning pitches, retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced, including the last 10 in a row, to help lift the Cadets (18-2, 10-1) to a 3-2 victory over Marian Central Catholic in Aurora.

With the win, Marmion clinched at least a share of the Suburban Catholic Conference title. The Cadets currently hold a 3-game advantage in the loss column over the Hurricanes (14-9, 9-4) with 3 conference games remaining.

The game started inauspiciously for Burns and the Cadets after leadoff man Eli McGuire singled and scored on a triple off the bat of Scott Franzgrote. Four pitches later, Franzgrote came across on Andrew Stochl's groundout to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.

"I'm actually diabetic and in the first few innings my blood sugar was a little low," said Burns. "I had to eat a Snickers bar to get some sugar in me and then my blood sugar started rising.

"From there, I threw more strikes, kept my composure and my teammates helped me out a lot on defense."

Burns, who tests his blood sugar level every inning, felt his velocity was a little low at the outset.

"When you have low blood sugar, you feel lightheaded and nauseated," said the senior right-hander. "You just feel kind of weaker than you normally do."

While Burns was in the dugout trying to regain some strength, his teammates did their part helping their pitcher feel better.

Dave DeSimone led off with a single and scored on Matt Milroy's bad-hop triple that eluded Hurricanes left fielder Casey DiPietro. Bobby Winkel then delivered an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2.

That is how things still stood until the sixth inning when the Cadets pushed across the go-ahead run.

Milroy started the rally with a sun-drenched triple before Winkel drove him in with an RBI single on a 0-2 pitch through the Hurricanes' drawn-in infield.

"The field doesn't face the way it's supposed to - it's supposed to face to the northeast," said Marmion coach Dave Rakow. "I guess it's kind of a homefield advantage when the sun's setting over there in the eyes of the left fielder, third baseman and shortstop.

"Our guys had sunglasses and I guess their guys didn't. But I'll take it."

It was the Cadets' second consecutive 3-2 victory in as many days over Marian Central Catholic. C.J. Foster's provided the game-winning RBI single in the top of the seventh Monday in Woodstock.

"Any time you've got a close game, little, itty-bitty things get put under a microscope like that," said Rakow. "When it's 3-2, all the little plays get put under a microscope. It makes it a little more exciting - more of a playoff atmosphere.

"It seems like every time we play Marian, it's a close game. I'm glad it's just two (games) because if we played them 10 times I don't know how many we'd get."

David Parr (5-2) suffered the loss for the Hurricanes.

"We got a bad-bounce in the outfield in the first inning and lost the ball off the bat in the last inning," said Marian coach Gregg Wikierak. "That's how they got two of their three runs.

"It's a shame that one of the pitchers had to lose a game today."