Oswego's 7-run inning ends things for BC
ROCHELLE - One bad inning spelled the end of the season for the Burlington Central baseball team here Saturday.
Cinderella Oswego, which came into the postseason with a paltry 7-23 record, scored 7 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, aided by 3 Rocket errors, and went on to down BC 11-3 in the championship game of the Class 3A Rochelle sectional.
The Panthers (11-23) take on LaSalle-Peru Monday in the Rock Island supersectional at Augustana College. Burlington, which was playing in just its second sectional championship game in program history, finishes the season 25-7. The Rockets had a 13-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
"We learned today that baseball is a game of momentum," said BC coach Kyle Nelson. "We had a couple of opportunities to take the game over and it didn't happen. Give (Oswego) credit; they hit the ball all over the place."
Central held a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth when the wheels fell off. Oswego had 6 hits including a grand slam home run from Cory Johnson, BC made 3 errors and by the time the inning was over the Rockets trailed 9-3.
"You give anyone 4-5 outs in an inning and they'll take advantage of it," Nelson said. "They took full advantage of our mistakes."
Oswego went up 2-0 in the second inning on a 2-run home run from Parker Meek. The Rockets came back and made it 2-1 in the third on a round-tripper from Tyler Wilkening, and then took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth when Austin Jarvis reached on an error and then came around to score when Oswego made another error on Nick Hahn's grounder. Drew Stover's RBI single gave the Rockets a short-lived 3-2 lead.
Hahn (11-1) suffered his first loss of the season, pitching 31/3 innings, allowing 9 runs on 8 hits.
"Nick didn't have one of his better days today," Nelson said. "His curveball was off."
Despite the loss, Nelson was pleased with his team's performance over the season, which included a conference championship and the program's furthest advancement in the postseason since 2005.
"It's been an exciting year and I told them they had nothing to hang their heads about," Nelson said. "We've been saying all week that (Oswego) is better than their record. They play in an awfully tough (Class) 4A conference (the Southwest Suburban Prairie)."
The Rockets graduate 6 seniors but have a solid nucleus back, including juniors Stover, Jarvis, Hahn and freshman Tanner Scott, who had a double in Saturday's loss.
"Hopefully this leaves our juniors, sophomores and freshman hungry for more next year," Nelson said.
Jaci Corn contributed to this report.