Naperville Central wins legendary clash
BLOOMINGTON - Baseball legends were in the making.
O'Fallon pitcher Miles Quintal impressed at Illinois Wesleyan University's Jack Horenberger Field on Monday. First, he threw 90 pitches and hit a 3-run home run as the Panthers rallied to beat Minooka in the continuation of Saturday's sectional final.
Forty minutes later the senior right-handed curveballer again took the ball in the Class 4A supersectional against Naperville Central. He threw 52 more pitches and allowed 1 run before only an IHSA finals rule specifying a daily 9-inning maximum could knock him out.
"What a terrific, gutsy performance by him. He kept them in the game, he didn't walk people," said Naperville Central coach Bill Seiple.
"But we've got Roy Hobbs on our team, all right. He swings the bat, he pitches, he does everything."
Naturally, Seiple meant the Redhawks' Shane Conlon. The senior lefty threw a 4-hitter, had 3 hits himself including 2 doubles, and accounted for the go-ahead run in Naperville Central's 3-2 victory over O'Fallon.
Earning a program record for wins, Naperville Central (36-4) will return to the state semifinals for the first time since winning the 2006 AA championship. The Redhawks will face Stevenson - a 5-1 winner Monday over Maine South - in the Class 4A semifinals at 3 p.m. Friday at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.
These legends had a subtext. Exactly one year ago today at Illinois Wesleyan, Quintal held Naperville Central to 3 hits in O'Fallon's 2-1 supersectional victory. In the 2009 4A semifinals Conlon, then pitching for St. Rita, beat O'Fallon 4-0.
"It was a lot of fun and we gave them a little revenge and a little payback from last year," said Conlon, who pinpointed his fastball, throwing 83 of 118 pitches for strikes.
"We figured at one point if we got his (Quintal) pitch count up there he couldn't keep throwing," said Conlon (11-0). "We finally got him out of there and we put some runs up on the board."
Quintal himself created the first run. Hitting cleanup, he hit the first pitch he saw to the fence in right-center for a triple. Courtesy runner Eric Levin scored on an infield out for a 1-0 Panthers lead after 2 innings.
Naperville Central answered. Conor Philbin lined a 1-out single. Conlon's double to right was hit so hard Seiple had to hold Philbin at third. Matt Cmiel's sacrifice fly produced a 1-1 tie.
"Revenge? It's not so much. They're a real good team," said Philbin, who like Cmiel hit 2 singles. "I mean, it's a 3-2 ballgame to beat them at supersectionals. It's a great feeling, they're a really good ballclub and I've got to give them a lot of credit."
After 4 innings in which he allowed 4 hits and struck out three, Quintal was forced out to left field.
"I didn't think it had a lot of bearing on the game," said O'Fallon coach Jason Portz.
"It kind of made it more fun," Quintal said of his quasi-doubleheader, "because we knew that we could go to state in one day. We could do something not a lot of teams could say."
Conlon started the sixth inning with a line double off freshman right-hander Jacob Jarvis (4-3). Cmiel followed with a single and Marc Mantucca was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Bobby Czarnowski's sacrifice fly scored courtesy runner Ian Lewandowski to give Naperville Central the 2-1 lead. Nick Linne was walked intentionally to again load the bases. On Mason Hallett's grounder to short, O'Fallon got the force at home but the catcher's throw to first for the double-play hit Hallett in the base path, allowing Mike Riordan - running for Czarnowski - to come around for a 3-1 Redhawks lead.
Things got tense when O'Fallon's Austin Bossart doubled to lead off the bottom of the seventh. An infield out advanced him to third, and Naperville Central gladly took an out on Cody Seeberger's run-scoring sacrifice fly. Conlon ended the game with strikeout No. 10 - a 2-2 fastball, outside corner, swinging.
"It was a long day," Conlon said. "We left this morning at like 10 a.m. I definitely didn't want to come back here and have the long ride back home, losing."