Murphy, Graysake Central turn away Montini

Grayslake Central senior Matt Murphy appeared to be pitching on empty with underdog Montini chipping into a once-comfortable 6-run lead in Thursday's Class 3A Johnsburg baseball sectional semifinal.

Montini's deficit was down to 2 runs after five innings and Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen was ready to make a change. Then the Southern Illinois-bound right-hander changed Whalen's mind.

"Matt said he was going to finish the game," Whalen said. "Murph wanted the ball and that's what you want in a D-I kid."

And Murphy (10-0) finished off a 6-4 victory by leaving the tying run on first base in the top of the seventh as the Rams (30-7) held on for a 6-4 victory at Tigers Field.

"I didn't want to come out," Murphy said. "I had gone that far and I knew I had a little left in the tank."

Murphy threw 88 of his 135 pitches for strikes and 4 of the 10 hits he allowed didn't leave the infield. Four of his 6 strikeouts came in the final 21/3 innings.

His final one was called on the outside corner after Montini (17-18) put runners at first and second on singles by Kevin Hankins (2-for-3) and Mike Davis (2-for-4). It put the Rams in Saturday's 10 a.m. sectional final against Marian Central (25-9).

"Murph had to battle and that's what an ace has to do,'" said Rams first baseman Angelo Gargano, who blasted a 3-run double to center field in the first inning. "He always comes to play. You never see fear in his eyes. He's always solid on the mound."

Grayslake Central, which finished third in the state in 3A last year, didn't look as if its outcome would be in doubt to the final out. Two throwing errors on infield hits by Stefan Falbo and Josh DeAngelis led to a 3-run second capped by a 2-run single from Jackson White (2-for-3).

But junior Anthony Reaber and sophomore Kurtis Ligocki allowed only 2 singles the last 42/3 innings in the pitching-by-committee plan started late in the season by Montini coach Bill Leeberg.

"We really came together for the tournament and beat two good teams," Leeberg said of Wheaton Academy and Glenbard South. "Today we go down 6-0 and kept fighting. The guys always believed we had a shot to come back and win this thing."

Murphy escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first but Whalen said his velocity on the Rams' radar gun dropped from 88 mph to 84.

Montini got its first run on Tom Ruopp's RBI single on an 0-2 pitch in a 2-run third. Jack Bowe (2-for-3) had an RBI single in the fourth and Frank Montalto's two-out swinging bunt made it 6-4 in the fifth.

"Maybe it was a lack of concentration and I wasn't as focused as I should be in this type of game," Murphy said.

"When 'Murph' decided to start rearing back in the fifth, sixth and seventh he was a different pitcher," Whalen said as his velocity spiked back up to high 80s. "I give him a lot of credit. He battled."

So did Montini with Bowe and Hankins as its only senior starters. Sophomore catcher Kurt Gitchell went 2-for-3 with a double.

"During the tournament we made guys throw quite a few pitches and ended up jumping on them," Leeberg said, "but (Murphy) stayed pretty strong."

Especially when Montini mounted one last threat.

"If we're going to go down in a single-elimination (tournament) we're going to go down with our D-I guy on the bump," Whalen said.

"I still felt like I had enough left," Murphy said. "I had come that far and I had to bear down and finish it."