St. Edward will play for first sectional title
The St. Edward baseball team sent a message with a 4-run first inning and punctuated it with an 8-run fourth.
Those big innings combined with 2 solo home runs in the third spelled out a 14-1, five-inning victory over the Latin School of Chicago in a semifinal of the Class 2A Driscoll sectional Thursday.
The Green Wave attacked with 9 hits - 3 of them solo home runs - and senior pitcher Jim Fraczek (4-2) held the Romans to 1 run on 2 hits and struck out five.
Senior Riley Coleman (8-1) will get the start Saturday, when St. Edward (18-12) plays Aurora Christian (24-10) for the title at 11 a.m. Both schools are seeking their first sectional championship.
"We're running on all cylinders right now," said St. Edward left-fielder Jordan Torres, who went 3-for-3 with a home run and 3 RBI. "Everybody's hitting. We're pitching well. Riley's coming back (Saturday) strong and healthy. Hopefully, he throws a good ball."
This will be the first sectional championship game appearance for the Green Wave since they lost back-to-back title games to Montini in 2004 and 2005. It is the first sectional title game appearance for Aurora Christian, which defeated Walther Lutheran 9-7 in eight innings on Wednesday.
The Latin School (7-10), which had 10 games canceled by weather this year, jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Matt Weiss followed Grant Simon's two-out single with a double to the wall in right center.
Fraczek then shut the door. The right-hander held the Romans hitless for the next four innings.
"The main point was get your first strike down, get ahead in the count, control the count," Fraczek said. "My fastball was really working. I thought I had a lot of pop. And my off-speed was my curveball. I'm excited. I thought we worked as a team today."
Latin School starting pitcher Hunter Case worked deliberately, but the Wave waited him out for 5 walks in the first inning, three of which eventually scored. Torres had the only hit of that rally to drive in a run.
He stayed hot in the third inning, crushing a leadoff home run over the left-field fence and into the yard of a neighboring home.
"He gave me a curveball," Torres said. "I was just sitting back and looking for it, and I just drove it to the other side of the street." Mike Kondrath launched a solo home run to right to make it 6-1, but St. Edward was just getting warmed up.
In the fourth, Jon Godfrey led off with a solo home run down the left-field line. In all, the Wave sent 12 men to the plate and scored 8 runs on 6 hits, including a 2-run double by Julian Ramirez and a 2-run single by Godfrey, to make it 14-1.