Crystal Lake S. hangs on to beat Jacobs
Senior pitcher Jordan Van Dyck and No. 1 Crystal Lake South denied No. 2 Jacobs’ bid for the first regional title in school history by holding on for a 3-2 victory in the Class 4A Huntley regional championship game Saturday afternoon.
The regular-season co-champions of the Fox Valley Conference’s Valley Division won the third regional title in school history and their first since 2008 on the strength of Van Dyck’s 73-pitch, complete-game 5-hitter.
Van Dyck didn’t allow a run until Connor Conzelman roped a 2-run home run to left field with no outs in the seventh to close the gap to 3-2. However, after potential tying run Greg Sidor singled and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt, Van Dyck rebounded by striking out Zac Camacho swinging and inducing a game-ending groundball to third base off the bat of pinch hitter Tim Mahoney.
“We made it interesting at the end,” CL South coach Brian Bogda said. “I kind of expected it to be a tight game. Jacobs has had a great year all around, and they’re a well-coached team. Jamie (Murray) has done a great job his first year over there. I knew it was going to be a close one, even with the wind blowing out.”
Van Dyck, a North Central College recruit, finished with 8 strikeouts and no walks.
“That was our 35th game and that’s as good a game as I’ve seen pitched all year,” Murray said. “He mixed his pitches very well working in his fastball. And he pitched backward on some guys because they had us scouted pretty well.
“I’m proud of our guys to fight all the way to the last out. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t our day.”
The Gators (28-9) advance to a McHenry sectional semifinal against Grant (22-11) at Petersen Park on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Grant defeated Cary-Grove 4-2 to win the McHenry regional Saturday.
“We’re on a good roll here,” said Van Dyck (10-1). “Hopefully, we can just keep doing the things we’ve been doing all year and win a couple of games in sectionals.”
Jacobs starting pitcher Evan Blunk (6-3) held the Gators scoreless until catcher Dom Winiecki led off the fourth inning by pulling a line-drive home run over the right-center field fence for a 1-0 lead.
“It was definitely a big momentum-changer, which I think is what we needed,” said Winiecki, who jumped on the first pitch of the at-bat. “I was just trying to put the ball in play, make a big opportunity and get something going.”
CL South added 2 more runs in the fifth inning. Blunk issued a one-out walk to Jake Bigos. Next up was Tyler Salm, who had earlier grounded into a double play and struck out swinging. This time he laced a run-scoring single to the gap in right center and ended up on second base after the throw to the plate.
“I was struggling a little bit in my first at-bats, so I was just trying to get a good pitch and rip it somewhere and see what happens,” Salm said.
Blunk was relieved by fellow junior Nick Ledinsky, who was greeted by an infield single from the hustling Winiecki. He beat the throw, which was in the dirt and got past the first baseman for an error that allowed Salm to score CL South’s third run. It would prove to be critical.
Jacobs’ seventh inning opened with a single from shortstop Kenny Finn, who missed the regional semifinal Thursday due to illness. Conzelman then stepped to the plate and drilled a 1-1 pitch from Van Dyck over the left-field wall, but Van Dyck regrouped to close out the Golden Eagles (19-16).
“Conzelman’s a great hitter and he made me pay on that pitch by putting it over the trees,” said Van Dyck, who graduated from high school earlier in the day. “I just tried to keep my composure, come back and throw strikes and hit my spots.”
Jacobs returns 19 of the 25 players on the roster next season.
“Congratulations to Brian and that program over there,” Murray said. “I’m happy for him, but I’m obviously very disappointed for us. We expected to win. I was confident in our guys. We were prepared. At the end we just came up a little short.
“We’ll have 19 seniors going forward. I hope they have a taste in their mouths moving forward and work hard in the off-season. We’re a talented group. We’ll work hard in the off-season. We’re not done yet.”