Wrap: Hendricks makes sure one enough for Carmel

Many baseball coaches make a habit of it.

But according to Carmel coach Chuck Gandolfi, he's not looking to hide a weak hitter in the No. 9 slot.

He wants production, which is exactly what he got Wednesday.

No. 9 hitter Kevin Hendricks busted up a scoreless game against Highland Park when he drove in David Venegoni from second with a hard-hit single up the middle in the sixth inning.

It proved to be the game-winner as Carmel edged the Giants 1-0 in a Class 4A sectional semifinal at Libertyville.

The top-seeded Corsairs improve to 31-5 on the season and will now face the winner of today's semifinal game between No. 14 Buffalo Grove and No. 2 Mundelein in Saturday's 10 a.m. championship game.

No. 5 Highland Park, which got its last game out of retiring coach Andy Knotek, closed out its season with a 26-6 record.

"We use that role (of No. 9 hitter) differently than a lot of teams," Gandolfi said. "We've told (Hendricks) how important the No. 9 role is in our philosophy of offense. It's huge.

"He can bunt, he can run, but he can also hit. He can do a little bit of everything."

Hendricks has gotten hits before, but none bigger than this one. It was the first game-winning hit of his career.

"(Gandolfi) lets me hit, so I'll take that," Hendricks said. "It's like I'm more of a leadoff hitter because I'm supposed to get on base so that we can get back to the top of the lineup.

"That's what I was trying to do (against Highland Park). I knew a fastball was coming and I just wanted to get a base hit and help out my team. We had to find a way to get it done and eventually we did."

Usually, the Carmel offense doesn't have to search so long.

But Highland Park pitcher Jon Menke didn't make life easy on the Corsairs.

He was removed after Hendricks' hit, but before that, he had given up just 6 hits in the previous five innings and had allowed the Corsairs to advance past first base just five times.

"I felt really good today. The whole day I was visualizing pitching well," Menke said. "My cutter was moving all over the place. I had good location and I was working the corners.

"I just threw a fastball over the plate and (Hendricks) ripped it."

Menke rolled up 6 strikeouts and allowed just 2 walks. He finished the season with a 7-3 record.

"Menke pitched a great game against us and kept us off balance," Gandolfi said. "We didn't have real good at-bats with runners on base."

Highland Park managed a good at-bat with a runner on base, but Carmel came up with a remarkable defensive play to end the threat.

Menke reached in the fifth inning and looked to advance to third on a monster single by Anthony Kopp.

Kopp's hard hit wound up in right field, but Carmel right fielder Joey Pudlo rocketed a throw to third and third baseman Bobby Lyne was able to tag out Menke.

"Joey just made a perfect throw," Carmel pitcher Jordan Sivertsen said. "That was huge."

Sivertsen came up huge, too.

In fact, in giving up just 3 hits on the day, he even surpassed Menke's top-notch performance.

"I hit my spots with mostly fastballs and I threw a curveball when I needed to," said Sivertsen, who improved to 7-1 on the mound. "Their pitcher pitched good and I just had to do what I could to be better than him."

Loyola 7, Glenbrook S. 3: The fourth-seeded Ramblers (23-13) broke a 3-3 tie with a 4-run fourth inning as Mike Fallon had a tiebreaking RBI single. Jack Keating threw a complete game with 8 strikeouts at Niles West.

Loyola advanced to Saturday's 10 a.m. championship against the winner of today's semifinal between No. 2 Leyden (25-7) and No. 11 Maine South (12-15).