Siedlecki, Carmel savor sweet victory

By going 2-for-3 at the plate Saturday, Carmel center fielder Brian Siedlecki kept his batting average right around the .500 mark, which is where it's been hovering for much of the season.

His secret?

"Wheaties, maybe?" Siedlecki said with a grin.

Does Siedlecki actually eat Wheaties?

"Yeah," he said matter-of-factly.

Does he actually like the taste of Wheaties?

"Yeah," he said again.

Although, with some coaxing, Siedlecki admitted that he sprinkles sugar on his Wheaties every now and then.

Of course, the taste of a regional championship is sweet enough. No sugar necessary.

Just ask Siedlecki and his teammates, who got their sugar-high by knocking off Warren 5-3 in the Class 4A Warren regional title game.

The sweet taste of victory also washed away the sour taste the Corsairs had in their mouths from last season, when they were bumped in the regional championship game by Lake Forest.

After last year, this is nice," said Carmel coach Chuck Gandolfi, whose team hit the 30-win milestone in improving to 30-5 on the season. "We get a regional championship and get to play a little more baseball."

Top-seeded Carmel will take on No. 5 Highland Park, an 8-4 winner over No. 4 Rolling Meadows, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals of the Libertyville sectional.

Warren, the visiting team on the scoreboard, had a 2-1 lead after Sean Kennedy hit the first of his 2 homers in the top of the fourth inning.

But the Corsairs responded immediately, scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead for good.

Scott Bierman and Kevin Hendricks began Carmel's portion of the inning by reaching on singles and then Siedlecki drove them in with a monster triple to left-center field.

"I was just fortunate to get a couple of hits to help us win the regional," said Siedlecki, who was left holding the championship plaque after the Corsairs broke up from taking celebratory team pictures around home plate.

Siedlecki also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to complete Carmel's scoring.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Corsairs came up with a big defensive play when John Zeffery helped turn a double play with third baseman Jordan Sivertsen and first baseman Donald Stopka.

"It was an excellent turn," Gandolfi said of the double play. "Our defense and pitching was really good. I thought (starter) Bobby Lyne pitched real well and Jordan (Sivertsen, who came on in relief in the sixth inning) came in and threw strikes.

"We made a lot of plays."

Warren (18-14) made some, too.

Kennedy nailed his second dinger in the sixth inning to cut Carmel's lead to 5-3.

"I was seeing the ball pretty well today," said Kennedy, who has never before gotten 2 home runs in the same game. He finished the season with 3 homers. "I got ahead in the count both times. The (pitches) were pretty much in the same spot. I just put them out there."

With two outs in the sixth, the Blue Devils then got another hit when starting pitcher Tony Roberts singled.

But Sivertsen came on for the next at-bat and got a strikeout to end the inning and take the wind out of Warren's sails.

"It's a disappointing way to end the year," Kennedy said. "It's just tough. We were two runs away from going back-to-back in the regionals."

Warren, which defeated Carmel during the regular season, won a regional title last season by defeating Zion-Benton in the championship.