Cary-Grove falls to O'Fallon, finishes fourth in state

It wasn't the ending Matt Nelsen expected.

Ditto for his Cary-Grove teammates.

They all had grown quite accustomed to him winning games on the mound. How accustomed?

Try undefeated in 19 games accustomed.

But on Saturday afternoon, Nelsen suffered not only his first loss of the season, but his first loss in the last two years.

Cary-Grove dropped a 3-2 decision to O'Fallon in the Class 4A third-place game at the state baseball tournament at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.

The Trojans close out the season at 31-10. O'Fallon ended up 32-10.

"That's an outstanding career for a finesse pitcher," Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland said of Nelsen, who entered the third-place game with an 11-0 record. He also went 8-0 as a junior last year. "His stuff has been right on every day for two seasons. It's a tribute to him and his catcher (Luke Mottashed). Matt was as tough as they come against the best teams in the Fox Valley Conference and anywhere. He's had a great career.

"It was just a tough weekend for us."

Cary-Grove lost its semifinal game on Friday to New Trier, also by the score of 3-2. Both opponents made diving catches in the outfield to foil potential Cary-Grove rallies.

"We could've just as easily been playing (for a state title)," Sutherland said. "That's how close it is. That's how fragile this game is."

But instead of dwelling on coulda, woulda, shouldas, the Trojans were upbeat in their assessment of the weekend. Trips downstate in baseball aren't an everyday occurrence at Cary-Grove.

In fact, they've never occurred before this season.

"(Getting downstate) was a big accomplishment for us and our school," Mottashed said. "It hasn't been done in school history. No team has gotten past the supersectional. So even though we came in fourth, it's a huge accomplishment for us and we should go out of here with our heads held up. We had a great season."

And so did Nelson, of course. He just had one tough inning against O'Fallon.

In the fifth, he issued 2 walks, and both of those batters eventually scored.

"That hurts a lot to start off the inning with a walk," Nelsen said. "You have to dig down deep to find it inside of you to throw strikes."

O'Fallon pitcher Miles Quintal must have dug pretty deep.

Besides a blip in the third inning in which Cary-Grove smacked 3 hits and Chris Waylock and Kegan Mascarella each drove in a run, Quintal was tough to hit.

He gave up only one other hit the rest of the day, a double to Eric Chandler (2-for-3) in the first at-bat of the game.

The victory upped Quintal's record on the mound to 11-2.

"Miles is starting to dominate teams," O'Fallon coach Jason Portz said of his star junior. "It was typical Miles Quintal. Just go out and pitch on the edges, low in the zone. And he doesn't let things fluster him much.

"He has 22 career wins through basically two seasons and it's always our top opponents. He still has a lot of potential."

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