Baseball: Marmion headed to 3A state finals

ROCK ISLAND - Eric Lundell's calm, Nick Brummel's adjustment, plus the hitting of Jack Molenhouse, Brandon McPherson, and Bobby Pierce combined to advance Marmion to the IHSA Class 3A baseball state finals for the first time.

Mid-state Morton may have had the better record coming and thrilled their fans by scoring first, however, Tuesday's Augustana College-hosted supersectional had Marmion come out on top 6-3 to face St. Viator in Friday's 12 p.m. semifinal at Joliet Slammer's Stadium.

The way he pitched, you wouldn't think Eric is a sophomore," Marmion coach Frank Chapman insisted. "He does his homework, has the right mental approach, stays calm, and he's a great kid."

The right-hander worked into the sixth before Nick Brummel came on to close out the victory for the Cadets (21-16).

"All season I've been the Monday pitcher, but I got my first save against (Rockford) Lutheran and the chance to pitch in the postseason is what I wanted," Brummel said. "I had some butterflies while warming up in the bullpen, but for us to go to state is indescribable."

Morton (25-12) pushed home a run in the bottom of the second as neither team appeared able to get much going offensively. In the top of the fourth with one out, Dillon DiIoria and Nick Talarico earned back-to-back walks and then came home on Molenhouse's drive to deep center.

"It was important to get us on the board and then we never let up," Molenhouse said. "We have a lot of faith in pitching and confidence at the plate."

Marmion came up with 4 runs in the top of the sixth to create a 6-1 cushion. DiIoria and Talarico got on base to start things off and a pair of Morton errors helped keep things rolling.

While the Potters got two of those runs back in the bottom of the sixth and had a leadoff single in the seventh, Brummel struck out one, induced a fly ball to right for out number two, and Molenhouse gathered up a grounder to throw to first for the out that set off a Cadet celebratory dog pile.

"This is huge for our program in many ways we've got six guys assisting us who played in a sectional and didn't win. Having those alums share in this is great," Chapman noted. "I can't say enough about Brummel. He simply gets the job done. We've been driving the ball pretty well, so seven hits today is good. And hats off to Morton. They've had leads, surrendered them, battled back for a tie or to pull it out."

Marmion was without pitching ace Collin Gibson, who was ejected in the Cadets' sectional title win.

"Our biggest goal was to take the next step, free Gibby," Lundell noted. "I used my scouring report and stayed focused. Getting those two runs for the lead helped me settle down."

Lundell improved to 5-3 with the win and got the third out in two innings with a strikeout. Morton starter Connor Kelly (2-5) took the loss.