Baseball: Harvest-Westminster Christian finishes runner-up in state in first season together

CHAMPAIGN — After having had just enough to get past Freeburg in Friday's Class 2A state semifinal, Harvest-Westminster Christian made it back to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus Saturday seeking the first-year consolidated institution's first state title as well as either baseball program's first crown since Westminster's in 2010.

To pull off the feat, the Warrior-Lions would need to meet the challenge of a St. Joseph-Ogden unit that had taken 39 of its first 41 games this spring as they returned to the final game of the 2A bracket for the first time since it dropped consecutive championship games in 2016 and 2017.

Added to that task was the fact that the Spartans were only a 15-minute ride from their St. Joseph home campus to Illinois Field where a large throng decked in the school colors of Columbia Blue, Maroon and White filled two-thirds of the stands to root for their team.

Put together, it became a mountain too big to climb for the Warrior-Lions as a 6-run first inning helped SJ-O roll to a 15-1, five-inning triumph Saturday evening to claim the program's first state title and the school's 12th IHSA crown overall.

As a bonus, the Spartans (40-2) became only the seventh state champ and first since Chillicothe Illinois Valley Central's 2006 Class A titlist to reach the 40-win milestone while winning a state championship on the diamond.

"A heck of a season. It's been great," SJ-O coach Josh Haley said of his first title after having been on the losing end on those two previous finals.

"Just excited to play (and) win a state championship."

The Spartans got their advantage that remained throughout the contest in the bottom of the first. They connected off Harvest-Westminster starting hurler Jameson Rapinchuk for 5 hits including four doubles with right fielder Parker Fitch and second baseman Asher Pruemer providing back-to-back RBI doubles to cap off the frame.

Next came Spartans first baseman Bryson Houchens who went deep on a two-run homer in the second making it 8-0. He then hit an RBI double that keyed a 5-run third which opened up a 13-0 lead.

Two more Spartans runs in the next inning concluded their scoring.

The Warrior-Lions (28-8) would get on the board thanks to an RBI grounder by junior DH Carter Goetz that brought in third baseman Tommy Neubert in their half of the fourth.

Harvest-Westminster coach Matthew Schulenberg took a moment for some reflection on his squad's season.

"It's so amazing to be out here and have this opportunity,“ Schulenberg said. ”We've had such a blessed season. We believed we had a good shot with our best guy (Rapinchuk) going today. St. Joe is an unbelievably good (team). They've had a phenomenal season."

He also paid homage to his five seniors: Rapinchuk, Brennan O'Donnell, Luke Bartolome, Brian Powers, and Sam Dries.

"We're so thankful we got to go downstate with those guys, " Schulenberg said. "We're going to miss them."