Zalecki sparks Fenton to victory over St. Francis

Stuck in traffic and stuck without pregame warmup pitches, Fenton's John Zalecki didn't flinch.

The Bison senior still led his team to a 5-2 victory over St. Francis in the Class 3A Glenbard South regional baseball quarterfinals Monday in Wheaton.

Fifth-seeded Fenton (12-19), which arrived late to Monday's game because of traffic coming from Bensenville, advances to Wednesday's semifinals to face No. 1 Glenbard South (16-17) in Glen Ellyn.

"We got here late so we didn't have enough time to warm up, but my arm felt great," said Zalecki, who went the distance while closing the game with six scoreless innings. "A couple of throws were good enough for me."

After Fenton took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an unearned run off St. Francis (20-14) starter Eric Stout (6-3), Zalecki (5-2) surrendered 2 first-inning runs on Mark Salomon's RBI groundout and Ryan Acciavatti's run-scoring single.

Stout was masterful early, retiring 15 of 16 batters at one point and taking a no-hitter to the sixth inning. Fenton, however, ultimately broke through.

Michael Mach's RBI double tied the game in the sixth and a sacrifice fly by Matt Swartz made it 3-2. Jake Martin walked and Danny Stevens blasted a 2-run homer to boost the lead to 5-2.

The sixth-inning burst held up for Fenton behind Zalecki, who allowed 2 hits over the last four innings.

"Earlier in the season when we played them, (Stout) 1-hit us and we lost 8-0," said Fenton coach Brad Meyer. "I knew going into this game that we had a better shot because we were throwing our No. 1, Mr. Zalecki. I had a feeling it was going to be a close ballgame, and he just went out there and pitched his tail off."

Mike Pugliese, who went 3-for-4, was the lone St. Francis player to make it past first base after the first inning.

"Overall Fenton played a real nice game today," said Spartans coach Rich Janor.

"They had a couple of good innings and just outplayed us today."