Westminster Christian takes regional title
Westminster Christian's Joe McGannon didn't like a couple of pitches from North Shore Country Day's Rob Voges on Saturday afternoon.
After briefly glaring at Voges after an inside pitch in the third inning, McGannon hit the next pitch well over the left-field fence for a solo home run, giving the Warriors a 4-0 lead.
Westminster needed the extra run and held on for a 4-3 victory over the Raiders in the Class 1A Westminster Christian regional championship game.
The regional title is the Warriors' third in the last four years and first since 2008.
"I was getting frustrated because he hit me in the hand in the first one and then he came back in again," McGannon said. "I just wanted to get an at-bat in."
The Warriors (25-9) advance to their own sectional and will play Lanark Eastland at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the sectional semifinals. The sectional opens Wednesday with a semifinal between Lena-Winslow and Fulton. The title game is next Saturday at 11 a.m. with the winner advancing to the Lisle supersectional at Benedictine University on Memorial Day.
Brandon Wiengartner homered to left center with two outs in the bottom of the first inning Saturday to give Westminster a 1-0 lead. On the next pitch, Voges hit McGannon. So when Voges came inside again on McGannon in the third after back-to-back RBI groundouts from Frank Oliver and Wiengartner, McGannon gave Voges (7-1) a long look.
The next pitch was a hanging curve ball, the same pitch Wiengartner homered on, and McGannon crushed it over the scoreboard in left field for 4-0 lead. Voges then hit the next batter, Kevin Elder.
"I've been getting a lot (of curveballs) lately and I've been hitting them well," McGannon said. "Anytime I see a curveball anywhere near (the plate) that's hanging I go for it. It worked out pretty good."
That appeared to be more than enough run support for Elder (9-4), who had allowed only a leadoff double in the first inning to Zach March and struck out six in the first three innings. But the Raiders (19-4) rallied for 3 unearned runs in the fourth. After an error, a one-out walk and a wild pitch, Voges blooped a single into left field to bring in 2 runs. Another error allowed courtesy runner Ryan Nolan to score to make it 4-3.
Elder went 6 innings, giving up just 2 hits and walking four. He struck out 12, including striking out the side in the second and fourth.
"It got warm out today and that made it a lot easier to pitch," Elder said. "When we got the (Wiengartner) home run that pumped everyone up and helped me settle down a little bit."
The score stayed that way into the top of the seventh. Ryan Perez relieved Elder. March had an infield single to lead off. Perez struck out the next two batters, but two wild pitches allowed March to advance to third. Perez then struck out Mikey Gendell on three straight fastballs to end the game.
"Every year our goal is to go deep in the playoffs," Warriors coach Jeff Moeller said. "These kids want it."
Each team only had 3 hits. The Warriors' only hit that wasn't a home run was a single up the middle from Ben Stevenson in the fourth.