Burlington Central headed to sectional finals

ROCHELLE - Through no fault of his own, Dave Hartwell was in trouble against Rock Island in the first inning.

But the Burlington Central senior had the perfect antidote.

Hartwell ended the Rocks' opening salvo with a 1-6-3 double play, and Central escaped its twin-error inning relatively unharmed.

The Rocks' unearned run proved to be their last as Central made the most of its 5 hits in advancing to the Class 3A Rochelle baseball sectional final with a 6-1 victory on Thursday afternoon.

Central (25-6), which has won 13 in a row, will meet a Cinderella Oswego team, which lost 23 of its 30 regular-season games, for a berth in its first supersectional in program history on Saturday at 11 a.m. Burlington, which last played in a sectional in 2006, has only been in one sectional title game, losing to Marian Central in 2005.

Saturday's winner will play the winner of the Washington sectional in the Rock Island supersectional at Augustana College on Monday.

Rock Island closed out its season at 25-13.

"I was just trying to get the lead runner, and the shortstop (Zack Romando) did the rest," said Hartwell, who went the distance in garnering his seventh win of the season against two losses.

"(The inning-ending double play) was really the key to the game," Central coach Kyle Nelson said. "We knew we were going to score some runs."

"We had a chance for a big inning," Rock Island coach Andy Campbell said. "I thought Hartwell pitched an outstanding game."

Rock Island was nursing its 1-0 lead, and Central still did not have a hit when Tyler Wilkening came to the plate with Bill Rodriquez on second base in the bottom of the second.

The senior caught up with a high fastball and drove a towering fly ball to left field.

"I saw the (Rock Island left fielder) climbing the fence, and I said, 'Uh-oh,' " Wilkening said.

But the ball cleared the fence, and Central had a lead it would not relinquish with the 2-run Wilkening blast.

Rock Island had back-to-back singles in both the third and fourth innings to threaten the Rockets' lead, but Hartwell pitched out of both jams with a deft mixture of breaking pitches.

Rock Island would ultimately have 3 more hits than Central, but none of Rocks' 8 hits went for extra-bases.

The same could not be said of the Central output.

Freshman Tanner Scott doubled the Central lead to 3-1 with a solo home run to left field in the third, and Wilkening added another solo blast in the sixth.

It marked the third consecutive postseason game that Central had ripped a trio of home runs.

"I was setting my counts pretty well," said Wilkening, who matched his regular-season output of round-trippers.

"We don't want to rely too much (on home runs), but they're surely nice to have," Nelson said.

Central has found a variety of ways to mount its 13-game winning streak, and the team staked Hartwell to a 5-1 lead with two in the fourth without the benefit of a hit.

Andrew Skirmont was plunked with a pitch with the bases loaded, and Scott added his second RBI with a deep sacrifice fly to center.

"We have been doing a lot of the little things (during the streak)," said Wilkening.