Baseball: Hinsdale Central rallies to beat Metea Valley

Similar to last Saturday's baseball regular-season matchup against Metea Valley, nothing went right for Hinsdale Central for the first inning and a half Thursday.

The rest of the Class 4A regional semifinal was a different story.

Spotting the host Mustangs an early 5-0 lead, the Red Devils stormed back to post a 9-7 win in Aurora and set up a date with top seed Plainfield North for the regional title Saturday.

"We had a lot of things going against us," Hinsdale Central coach Jason Ziemer said. "We were playing in their home field, we were playing a really good team. This was not an 8-9 (seed) game, more like a 4-5 game.

"They beat us 11-0 on Saturday and then we are down 5-0 in the second inning. But this group is gritty. We've talked about it all year, we are a team and today was a total team effort."

Hinsdale Central chipped away with 3 runs in the bottom of the second, with Spencer Garnett and Mitchell Mulvihill contributing RBI singles. The Red Devils then pushed 6 across in the third as Garnett tied the game with a 2-run double before Mulvihill drove in 2 with a triple.

"I was just trying to do a job," Mulvihill said. "We had runners on base and I was trying to move them. I had a 2-0 count, I was looking for my pitch and I got it and was able to capitalize on it."

Metea Valley clawed back with 2 runs in the fourth, with Ashton Creal delivering an RBI with an infield single. But the Mustangs hit into three double plays over the final four innings to stifle their rally.

Hinsdale Central left-gander Andrew Jurack was stellar in relief, allowing no runs over the final 2⅔ innings.

"I was out there trying to throw strikes," Jurack said. "My defense was incredible, the double plays they turned were great. They bailed me out of a couple situations."

Metea Valley, which finished 22-14 on the spring, recorded an RBI single from Blake Nicolls in the first and a run-scoring double from Blake Honda in the second.

"The boys played hard," Metea Valley coach Craig Tomczak said. "These seniors had great at-bats all year, and they did a lot of special things offensively for us all year. We ended up hitting .340 as a team and that was from all the hard work they put in."