Travis sends St. Charles East home happy
A Tri-Cities showdown is set - only after T.J. Travis and Wes Benjamin saved the day for St. Charles East.
Travis smashed the game-winning hit to deep left field in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday, giving the Saints a 4-3 win over Glenbard West in the Class 4A Geneva regional semifinals. Benjamin entered in relief in the fifth inning and blanked the Hilltoppers over the final 4 1/3 innings to improve to 11-2.
No. 5 seed St. Charles East (25-11) will play No. 4 Geneva (21-13) for the regional title at 10 a.m. Saturday. Tradition is on the Saints' side. They will be going for their 13th regional crown; Geneva its third.
But the Vikings have been the hotter program of late, winning both those regional titles since the Saints' last one in 2005.
"That will be a lot of fun for a lot of people," Saints right fielder Tommy Konrad said.
Konrad made one of the plays that kept the game tied 3-3. Tom Alt led off the eighth inning for the Hilltoppers and drove a ball to deep right. Konrad raced back and at full speed reached out and made the grab before running into the wall.
That catch became even bigger when Myles Purdom singled one batter later.
"I had a good read on it," Konrad said. "I was just trying to get back to the wall. I heard some of their fans yelling 'get out.' I knew it was going to be over my head so I booked it and got it. I just put my mitt out there. If they would have been on base they would have had all the momentum. I felt it took it way from them."
The Saints pushed across the winning run one inning later, denting the scoreboard for the first time since a 3-run first inning. Pinch-hitter Wes Phelps started the wining rally off Glenbard West reliever Sean Buckley with a pinch-hit single.
Tommy Laudadio's bunt failed to advance the runner to second but he made up for it by stealing second. Laudadio took third on Robert Wendt's single and scored when Travis launched an 0-1 fastball over the left fielder's head.
"That (fastball) was all I was looking for," Travis said. "I tried to do the best I could and swing as hard as I can to get the ball out of the infield."
The teams combined for just 11 hits, the second straight low-scoring game at Geneva after the Vikings' 1-0 win over West Chicago Wednesday.
"That was a great high school baseball game, both sides," Saints coach Dave Haskins said. "Wes Phelps comes up with the big hit. He's got a little role and makes the most of it."
Haskins rolled the dice and went with Wendt to start the game instead of Benjamin. Wendt responded with shutout baseball through four innings, striking out seven and allowing just a single hit.
The Saints staked Wendt to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a 2-run double down the left-field line by Luke Rojas and Ryan Sotern's RBI groundout.
The game couldn't have started much worse Glenbard West (15-21) when Travis, the second batter, hit a rocket that took a bad hop and hit Hilltopper second baseman and No. 3 hitter Mike Laning flush in the face.
Laning stayed down for 10 minutes before being helped off the field. He was taken to hospital.
"He needed stitches," Hilltoppers coach Brian Wojtun said. "Mike is a tough kid. He's a fighter, one of our leaders. It was a big loss for us but I was proud of the way the kids came back."
Wendt held the 3-0 lead until the fifth. Two walks and an error loaded the bases, and a 3-run double to the left-field gap by sophomore Ryan Kavanaugh tied the game.
Kavanaugh was in the game because of Laning's injury. He was called up after the sophomore season ended and had just 1 varsity at-bat before Thursday. He is the younger brother of leadoff hitter Chris Kavanaugh, who went 2-for-4 and reached base three times.
"He (Ryan Kavanaugh) came through against some of the best pitching you are going to see," Wojtun said. "He's going to be a nice player for us down the road."
Benjamin entered after Kavanaugh's 3-run double and stranded him at third, then proceeded to also strand runners the next four innings, including the potential go-ahead run at second in the sixth and ninth. He struck out six and walked one.
"Wes did great," his catcher Travis said. "I'm really proud of him. For him to step up in the clutch, guy at second and one out, it was big for him to get us out of the inning."
St. Charles East couldn't get anything going in the middle of the game against Buckley, who relieved Ben Krusen in the fourth. Buckley did pitch out of one jam in the seventh.
The Saints loaded the bases with one out, and Buckley went to a 3-0 count on the next hitter. One ball from their season ending, Buckley battled back to 3-2 and then induced a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play.
"He's a true pitcher," Wojtun said. "He's got control. Three-2 he threw a great changeup and got the kid on his front foot. Sean did a great job coming in for us and picking up the slack."