Baseball: Conant gives big crowd plenty to cheer about in supersectional win over Glenbrook North
The heat is on for Conant.
Playing in their first baseball supersectional, the Cougars took advantage of a warm Monday night in Schaumburg at Wintrust Stadium to fire their way to the state finals with a 6-1 win over Glenbrook North.
“These guys are unbelievable,” Conant coach Derek Fivelson said. “Bryce (Loeger) knew what he was doing out there. Once we got a run, he settled in and our dugout became very confident. We played very well behind him and played awesome defense today.”
Conant (29-7), which has now won 13 in a row, will meet York (31-9) in the state semifinals at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet at 7:30 p.m. Friday. York beat McHenry 9-5 in their supersectional final Monday,
Conant also had a massive crowd that nearly filled the third-base line.
“This was like a home game for us, even though we were the visitors on the scoreboard,” Fivelson said. “It was so great to see.”
Matt Maize continued to stay hot for Conant. Maize, who homered in each of his last two games, tripled to left center to lead off the second. He didn’t stay there long, scoring on Alex Martinez’s sacrifice fly to right to give Conant a 1-0 lead.
“It is countless hours of working in the offseason and they are starting to pay off, ” said Maize, who was 3-for-3, with a walk and scored two runs.
“In the offseason, we were all grinding. We are starting to see the results. It is a great feeling. Tonight we are celebrating, but Friday, we have bigger things to do.”
Conant used a trio of doubles to add to its lead in their next at-bat.
Cooper Hanson belted a double to left center gap with one out. After an out, Isaiah Rhodes drilled a shot down the left-field line to score Hanson. Maize remained on fire, doubling down the right-field line to score Rhodes and make it 3-0.
Glenbrook North (26-11-1) was able to get a run across on Loeger in the fourth. Sam Gaffney, who led off the inning with a single, then stole second. He would score on Ryan Rossi’s two-out single.
But that would be it for runs against Loeger, who has not given up more than two runs in a game all season.
He would go the distance, striking out 9, while allowing six hits, to improve to 11-0.
“I trust my stuff,” Loeger said. “I throw it every day in catch play. Sometimes when I only have two or three pitches, instead of all four working, I can go to them when I need them. Tonight was not the prettiest. But the Cougars are rolling.”
Conant had a huge opportunity to add on in the fifth. The Cougars loaded the bases when both Hanson and Logan Gale were hit by pitches. After an infield out moved them up a base, Maize was intentionally walked. But a pair of strikeouts ended the threat.
The Cougars didn’t miss out in their next at-bat. They were able to tally a pair of runs to make it 5-1.
With one out, Arjun Patel reached on an infield single and then went to second on a throwing error. Loeger followed with a sweet bunt that he beat out for a hit. After Hanson reached again on a hit batter, Patel scored on a balk. Gale then singled home courtesy runner Austin Potocnic to make it 5-1.
Conant was able to push across an insurance run in the seventh. Maize, who singled and went to third on Martinez’ single, scored on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Szpiganowicz.
“Once we got up 3-0, the probability was that we were going to state,” Fivelson said. “Maize, Hanson and Rhodes have come up with clutch hits all season. They had to step up today and they did.”