End-game strategy suits Viator's Kay, Prospect's Landwehr
In basketball or football the crucial play can be set up for the big star.
Not so in baseball.
You can't decide to move your best hitter into a different spot in the order because it's a crucial situation. Your best pitcher may not be available.
That's what made for such wonderful drama at the conclusion of Prospect's 5-3 victory over St. Viator in Thursday's Class 4A sectional baseball semifinal at Barrington.
Walking to the plate with two outs in the top of the seventh inning and a chance to tie the game was one of the state's most dangerous hitters in Cory Kay. The co-MVP of the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
Standing 60 feet, 6 inches away on top of the mound for Prospect was one of the area's best pitchers in junior Jack Landwehr. The player of the year in the Mid-Suburban East.
Oh, and 90 feet away was an open base and an option of putting Kay on there with the tying run and having Landwehr take his chance with power-hitting cleanup man Cosimo Cannella.
No chance for Prospect coach Ross Giusti.
“Pick your poison,” Giusti said. “The worst-case scenario is we're tied. I figured it was a challenge and we'd go after it.”
The primary participants and the big crowd wouldn't have wanted it any other way. No backing down. No shying away.
“I definitely wanted to be up in that situation,” said Kay, who is headed to play at the University of Houston.
It probably would have been a big wrestling match to get the ball away from Landwehr even though his pitch count was rising and standout senior Ben Menich was warming up in the bullpen.
“No way can you take that kid off the mound,” Giusti said. “He wants the ball and he wants to compete and that's the way he's been all year.
“What made him effective today is he got his off-speed stuff over. That was important because St. Viator is a good fastball-hitting team.”
Especially Kay. So the challenge was only going to go so far so Kay didn't hit one far enough to tie the score.
“He's timed me up a couple of times and he's a great hitter,” Landwehr said. “I knew he'd time up my fastball and I had first base open, so I tried to keep him guessing a little bit.”
So here came a curveball. And another. And another to make the count 2-1.
Landwehr came with one more curve. Kay connected.
“I just missed it, but what are you going to do?” Kay said of just getting under the pitch for a flyball that landed in Shane Joyce's glove in right-center field for the last out. “It stinks that your last at-bat in high school is to end the game.
“Especially with these guys because everyone worked their butts off. No one picked us to get this far and no one thought we could. We even had our doubts over the winter.”
But Kay, pitcher Robert Romano and designated hitter Brian Pichardo, the only seniors in Viator's starting lineup Thursday, helped turn a team that was 9-9 into an ESCC title contender and a regional champion.
“I can't say enough about our senior group,” said Viator coach Mike Manno. “That's what kept this group together and really helped us mature. Without them we wouldn't be in the sectional semifinals this year.”
Prospect is the opposite, with a senior-laden team boosted by key juniors such as Landwehr, Joyce and Brad Gerdes. But one of the secrets of its success has been the absence of class clashes.
“What's helped is everybody is friends and we can relate to each other,” Gerdes said.
That just heightened the intrigue in Thursday's fantastic finish.
“I've been playing with Cory since we were this (waist) high,” said Prospect senior outfielder Peter Bonahoom. “I talked to him every time I stepped in the box and we had a great time.
“It was tough to see Cory go down like that but I love seeing Jack get the best of him.”
And there was nothing better than seeing the best challenge the best in a game situation.
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com