Montini falls to the sectional's top seed
Montini senior center fielder Jake Pestel is combining his interests in baseball, math and science.
Pestel plans to study engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He also hopes to fill the baseball team's void for middle infielders after starting for the Broncos at second base as a junior.
"Math and science are my favorite subjects, so that was the perfect route to go," Pestel said. "Engineering is more like applying science to everything and using math to do it."
On Wednesday the Broncos tried their best to defy the odds and statistics facing them, but their season ended with a 14-4, five-inning loss to top-seeded Nazareth in the Class 3A Nazareth sectional semifinals.
No. 5-seeded Montini (17-20) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning on sophomore Brandon Shilgalis' home run, but the Roadrunners (29-8) answered with four runs and their first of four homers and never trailed again.
Nazareth junior catcher Shane Gipson hit two homers, giving him a team-best 6. His second came on the first pitch right after Matthew Wilson's 2-run blast during an 8-run fourth that blew the game open. Matthew Flach's homer ended the game by virtue of the 10-run rule.
"This was a real good team. They hit the ball throughout the lineup," first-year Montini coach Rich Janor said. "We came out and executed our game plan. We scored first. We played a pretty clean, defensive game but just were outmatched with their hitters. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and say they were better than us today."
Nazareth is in its seventh consecutive sectional and has reached the final in six of them. The sectional final is at 10 a.m. Saturday against Thursday's winner between No. 2 Benet (19-17) and No. 3 Glenbard South (23-10).
Pestel and sophomore Nick Malik each had 2 hits. Pestel, starting pitcher Sean Frontzak and infielders Jordan Lazowski and Anthony Vosicky were the only seniors in Wednesday's lineup.
"It was mainly seniors (who started) last year, and this year it was mainly juniors," Pestel said. "We started off really well (this season) and kind of hit a rough patch and I think that's where we kind of became a team, started playing together and we really put it together in the playoffs. Next year, they'll be a better team."
Shilgalis, another returning starter, hit his first homer of the season - a 2-run shot off Nazareth's Carson Bartels (5-1) - after a single by shortstop J.R. Walsh, a sophomore promoted for the playoffs.
The Roadrunners responded in the second with two singles, an RBI double by Wilson and a 3-run homer by Gipson.
"I thought it was key that we battled back after that 2-run homer. It stopped the momentum, but they came back and battled," Nazareth coach Lee Milano said.
"We've had some good days (offensively). I don't know if we've had a day in a situation like today. (Montini) had some really nice at-bats and hit the ball hard."
Frontzak was coming off a complete-game 3-1 victory over St. Patrick in Saturday's regional final. He retired the Roadrunners 1-2-3 in the first with a strikeout and ended the second with back-to-back strikeouts.
"(Frontzak's pitching) was OK. He started off OK," Janor said. "He was going on three days' rest, but their hitters just did a great job and hit the ball all over the place."
The 8-run inning came after Montini had closed to 5-4 behind singles by Pestel and junior Justin Blake and Malik's sacrifice fly RBI. In the third, Montini sophomore Alex Luka singled and scored after Shilgalis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Nazareth regained its 2-run lead in the bottom half at 5-3 with a double and Bartels' RBI single.
"We've got a lot of young guys," Janor said. "Winning the regional was one of our first goals and we were able to accomplish that. To have our younger guys out here - freshmen, sophomores - to experience this playoff-type atmosphere is very valuable."