St. Francis defeats Glenbard South
St. Francis couldn’t have drawn up this baseball game any better.
With their ace doing what he does best in front of an errorless defense — and backed by a timely hitting lineup — the Spartans advanced to the Class 3A Glenbard South regional final with Friday’s 6-0 victory over the host Raiders.
St. Francis senior left-hander Eric Stout (9-2) dominated in a 4-hitter with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. He also launched a 2-run fifth-inning homer that boosted the Spartans’ lead to 3-0.
It was a day when everything seemed to go right for third-seeded St. Francis (22-12), which faces a regional final challenge against Suburban Christian Conference rival Montini (18-13) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We’ve been working all week on executing the little things,” Stout said. “We bunted well, we hit well. My infielders made huge plays at the right time. We played extremely well this game.”
Stout, committed to Butler, and Glenbard South starter Ben Gaspar (3-2) were locked in a pitchers’ duel through three innings. Gaspar escaped a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the first inning and kept the second-seeded Raiders (19-13) in a scoreless tie until St. Francis sophomore Jack Petrando hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth.
It was the only run the Spartans needed.
“We’ve struggled with left-handed pitchers all year,” said Glenbard South coach Mike Riley. “And we made some mistakes defensively, but I can’t really magnify them when we didn’t score a run.”
Glenbard South committed 4 errors, leading to a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh. St. Francis, meanwhile, shined defensively by turning three double plays in the final four innings.
Stout, Petrando and Joel Birch each had 2 hits for the Spartans while Ryan Acciavatti bunted home a run in the seventh.
St. Francis swept fourth-seeded Montini in two SCC games this season, with Stout winning both games. The Spartans send Jack Roback to the mound this time.
“We’ve played Montini twice so we know them pretty well and they know us pretty well,” said St. Francis coach Rich Janor. “It gives us a chance to compete against them again and we’ll be ready to go.”