Aurora Christian downs St. Edward for sectional title

Aurora Christian baseball coach Andy Zorger's instructions for relief pitcher Andru Ubert were straightforward.

"Throw strikes, and we'll make the plays," Zorger said during a fourth-inning pitching change.

Entering a bases-loaded situation with one out and protecting a 5-2 lead against St. Edward, Ubert did what he was told. The senior worked ahead in counts and allowed just one inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly by T.J. Madzy. He escaped with a 2-run lead.

The Aurora Christian defense did the rest, making two running catches in the outfield and playing spotless in the infield to emerge with a 5-3 victory over the Green Wave in the Class 2A Driscoll sectional title game Saturday.

Each program was seeking its first sectional title. Aurora Christian (25-10) will face Watseka for the Lisle supersectional title at Benedictine University on Monday at 7 p.m.

"Our goal is state," Eagles senior Nate Hill said. "It's been a goal since the beginning of the year. We've just been working hard every day in practice to get that."

Ubert relieved starting pitcher Steve Clancy, who walked seven in 31/3 innings. The duo combined to hold the Green Wave to 3 hits. St. Edward had scored 36 runs on 34 hits in its last three playoff games.

"The big difference is we didn't hit today," St. Edward coach Gene Belmonte said. "After scoring 36 runs in three games you start to realize just how fickle hitting is. Hitting comes and goes depending on any given day, and we only had 3 hits today. That was the answer.

"We stranded a lot of runners early. I thought we had a chance to score two or three in the first couple of innings, which would have made it a different game."

St. Edward starting pitcher Riley Coleman allowed 8 hits and struck out 11, but the Eagles bunched half of their hits together in a damaging, 4-run third inning. Clancy led off with a double and scored one out later on a double by Ubert for a 2-1 lead.

Freshman Mitch Holtz followed with a run-scoring single, and No. 5 hitter Nate Hill made it 5-1 by smacking a 2-run shot over the left-field fence. Both Holtz and Hill jumped on the first pitch of their respective at-bats against Coleman. "We were just going up there hacking, just ready to go up and hit our pitch," Hill said.

Ubert retired the final 10 hitters he faced, helped by a jumping catch in center field by Clancy to rob Julian Ramirez leading off the sixth inning. Junior Dan Jacobsen made a running catch in left field to take a hit away from David Hoebbel with one out in the seventh.

It was the third time in six years the Green Wave have been denied in a sectional title game.

Coleman, a four-year varsity starter, reflected on his team's 18-13 finish: "Sweet Sixteen. We'll get a little plaque-banner thing in the school or whatever. That's cool.

"But we should have pulled it off."