Burlington Central rolls on with regional title

Mistake pitches. Prairie Ridge pitchers didn't make many, by coach Glen Pecoraro's count.

But Burlington Central's powerful offense has a knack for turning occasional mistakes into runs in the blink of an eye. The Rockets managed only 5 hits against Wolves starter Adam Enwiya (4 IP) and reliever Corey Peterson, but 2 of those hits were early home runs by Austin Jarvis and Tanner Scott, blasts that helped power Central to a 5-3 victory in the Class 3A Hampshire regional title game Saturday.

"Our pitchers made four mistakes," Pecoraro said. "Every mistake our pitcher made they barreled it. That's a heck of a hitting team. I think they have a chance of going on and doing very well."

The regional baseball title is Burlington Central's fifth overall and second straight. The Rockets (32-2) advance to a DeKalb sectional semifinal against Marmion (21-11) on Thursday at 4 p.m. No. 2 Marmion upset top seed Oswego 10-8 to win the Oswego regional Saturday.

Beating Prairie Ridge, a program that won the Class 4A state title in 2008, only strengthened the Rockets' belief in themselves.

"We had enough confidence going into the regional, but this gives us even more confidence," said Central senior Sam Klein, who pitched a complete game with 6 strikeouts to improve to 9-0. "This was the hardest regional in the state and we came out on top. There's nothing better to get your confidence going."

Prairie Ridge (26-11) jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, when Chad Ljunggren led off with a double and scored on a single by Jon Williams.

But the Rockets took the lead for keeps in their half of the first. Scott singled against Enwiya (3-1), a sidearm slinger, and Austin Jarvis followed with a long home run to left field. It was the 15th home run of the season for Jarvis, and the 2 RBI upped his season total to 75, making him the second-most prolific single-season RBI man in state history.

"I was just looking for a fastball when (Enwiya) got down 1-0," Jarvis said. "I just tried to drive one and got it up in the air."

Scott drilled a solo shot to left in the third to make it 3-1, and Central added another run in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly to the right-field wall by Jarvis, his 76th RBI of the season, 4 shy of the state record.

The Wolves mounted their best threat in the sixth. Ljunggren singled to lead off, Williams was safe on an error at second base and Justin Henderson drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Klein fell behind 3-0 against sophomore Corey Peterson but tossed two strikes to run the count full. Peterson won the battle with a bloop single to left field off his fists, scoring Ljunggren and Williams to cut the deficit to 4-3.

"I was trying to take until I could get a few strikes," Peterson said. "I was just looking for one pitch to put in play and get some runs in."

But Klein escaped the sixth inning with a 1-run lead by inducing a groundball out, thereby stranding the tying run at third base.

"That inning was partly my fault, walking some guys," Klein said. "My mentality was to throw strikes, get my off-speed stuff going and just attack, attack, attack. That's all I do, just keep attacking. (Peterson) got a nice hit, but I kept attacking and got out of the inning."

Klein gave himself a key insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out single up the middle that scored Zack Romando. He then retired Prairie Ridge's No. 8, 9 and 1 hitters in order to end the game.

"I think our kids realized it's going to be tough no matter who you play in the postseason," Rockets coach Kyle Nelson said. "They did a good job of staying focused all year and really working toward this, so they deserve it."