Aurora Christian knocks out Lisle
As soon as the baseball hit the bat, Aurora Christian’s entire bench jumped to its feet.
Just from the sound of it, you knew the game was over.
Josh Haugen crushed a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Eagles a 3-2 victory over Lisle in Saturday’s Class 2A Lisle regional championship.
The victory gives top-seeded Aurora Christian (28-6) its second regional title in three years and avenges last season’s loss to the No. 2 Lions (21-12) in the regional final.
Haugen launched the one-out, full-count pitch over the 350-foot sign in center field for his fifth homer of the season. Aurora Christian advances to play Latin in the Benedictine University sectional semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lisle.
“I got a good pitch and it went over,” said Haugen, who went 3-for-4 from the two spot in the order. “We’re really confident, especially with the top of our lineup.”
After Lisle knotted the score at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, the teams took their own routes in keeping the score right there. Stellar defensive plays by Lisle second baseman Brian Czyl and right fielder Kazim Khan helped keep Aurora Christian from adding runs.
The Eagles, meanwhile, relied on the sure arm of ace Bobby Kuntzendorf, who improved to 9-0 with the complete-game effort. Kuntzendorf, who struck out six, walked four and hit a batter, admitted he didn’t have his best stuff on Saturday but he managed to strand runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“You’ve just got to try and focus in and tell yourself you’ll be all right,” Kuntzendorf said. “Just hunker down and throw strikes.”
Will DeCraene’s RBI single put Lisle ahead 1-0 in the top of the third, but Aurora Christian answered with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the inning. After an error scored the first run, Mitch Holtz singled in the go-ahead run.
Lisle tied the game on a fourth-inning fielder’s choice that scored Ryan Van Volkenburg. Kevin Coppin went 2-for-2 and scored Lisle’s first run.
“They’re an awesome team and I knew it was going to be a battle,” said Lisle coach Pete Meyer. “It hurts, and it’s going to hurt. But we gave it everything we had.”