Bergmann towers for Wheaton at state tournament

Someone in the Wheaton dugout joked to Andrew Bergmann about preparing to pitch the biggest game of his life late Thursday afternoon.

Bergmann didn't fool around in a game Wheaton needed to win to stay alive in the American Legion baseball state tournament at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake.

The tall right-hander who will be a senior at Glenbard North threw a complete game with 11 strikeouts in a 13-4 victory over Crystal Lake.

"My arm didn't feel that good in warmups," said Bergmann, who allowed only 2 walks and retired the last seven hitters. "The first couple of innings were bad but after it got to 11-1, I settled down."

Designated hitter Mike Caduto played for the first time since early June because of an arm injury and tripled, singled twice and had 4 RBI in the first three innings.

Ryan Sabalaskey, David Wolak and Chris Caliva also had 2 hits apiece as Wheaton (24-10) stayed alive in the double-elimination tournament and at 4 p.m. today gets a rematch of Wednesday's 12-9 loss to Moline (33-6).

Wheaton coach Jerry Miller said Aric Dama, who was 3-2 this spring at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has only lost once this summer, would start against the only unbeaten team left in the tourney.

Moline won 9-3 over defending state champion Palatine (30-9) and Mattoon (19-17) eliminated Fairview Heights 13-4. Palatine and Mattoon play at 9 a.m. today with the winner facing Crystal Lake (24-10) at 12:30 p.m.

Crystal Lake scored a run and got 5 of its 9 hits off Bergmann in the first two innings. But Bergmann overcame not having his usual zip on his fastball to throw 100 of his 140 pitches for strikes and allow only 3 earned runs.

"I had to be precise and throw more off-speed, too," Bergmann said.

"He pitched a great game," Miller said. "The first couple of innings were a little rough but after that he was great like he has been all year."

So where Wheaton's hitters even though Caduto, a Wheaton North grad who will play at North Park, had not swung a bat in nearly six weeks. Caduto did some pregame work with hitting coach Kevin Sewell and lined an RBI triple to right-center on the first pitch he saw in the first inning.

"I was going to try to take some pitches but my first two at-bats I swung at the first pitch," Caduto said. "I was more nervous if I'd be able to keep up with the pitching but I ended up being fine."

He had an RBI single in the second and followed Sabalaskey's 2-run single with his own in an 8-run third that started with 2 walks and two botched sacrifice bunts by Crystal Lake.

Alex Macaulay had a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Lee Spinelle had an RBI double in Crystal Lake's 2-run seventh. Caliva had a 2-run single in the ninth for Wheaton.

"We had five (scoreless) innings off, but if we put up 13 runs we should definitely never lose," Caduto said.

Wheaton will try to duplicate that successful formula again today.