Baseball: Willowbrook walks away with big win vs. Lake Park
Images of last season's regional final flashed in the minds of many Saturday afternoon at Hoffman Estates.
Sure enough, role reversal saved the day for Willowbrook's baseball team.
Mike Dembowski's one-out RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Kyle Ferguson to give the Warriors a 6-5 walk-off victory over Lake Park in the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional title game.
Willowbrook (25-8) claimed its first regional championship since 2012 against the same Lancers team that ended the Warriors' season last year on a ninth-inning walk-off hit. The Warriors face Conant, a 5-0 winner over Glenbard West, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Lake Park sectional semifinals at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg.
"We just had to keep our heads in it," Dembowski said. "This one definitely feels a little better because we lost to them last year. In the clutch moments we came through."
A back-and-forth game tested the nerves as a 2-0 Willowbrook lead on Alec Michaelson's 2-run first-inning single turned into a 3-2 Lake Park advantage on Zach Aehlert's bases-clearing double in the top of the third.
Marshall McDonnell put the Warriors back on top 4-3 with a 2-run fourth-inning single, but an error tied the game 4-4 in the fifth. Ferguson's solo homer gave Willowbrook a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth before Ian Renger's sacrifice fly for Lake Park knotted it again at 5-5 in the top of the seventh.
Lake Park (14-18) was set up for a bigger inning in the seventh, but the runner tagging up from second base was called out for leaving too early, resulting in a double play.
"We gave them a run and went down to the wire," said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. "We came back, they came back. It was a great game. There's nothing to hang our heads about."
Scott Kohrt was the winning pitcher in relief of starter Ryan Mintz and reliever Jack Nilles.
With two victories next week, Willowbrook will win its first sectional title since 1973.
"These kids have battled," said Warriors coach Vic Wisner. "This was their goal. This is what we wanted. We wanted hardware."
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