Baseball: Lemont stops St. Viator's streak in state semifinals

JOLIET — St. Viator's dream of a Class 3A state baseball title evaporated Friday.

The Lions, who jumped to an early 2-0 lead, could not hold off Lemont and fell 10-2 in the semifinals at Silver Cross Field.

“It is hard for these guys right now,” said St. Viator coach Mike Manno, whose team had a 10-game winning streak that dated back to May 17 snapped.

“I told them after to keep their heads high because of the things we have accomplished. We haven't lost in a long time, so we don't know what it feels like and it hurts. But we have another game to come back to tomorrow (Saturday).

St. Viator (25-16) will play Bartonville Limestone for third place at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Because of weather concerns on Saturday, no inning in the third-place game may start after 10:30 a.m, according to the IHSA.

Lemont will play Springfield, which beat Limestone 13-0 in 5 innings, for the 3A state title immediately following.

“We came out, got a couple of runs and looked good early,” Manno said. “Kevin (Napoleon) looked good on the mound. Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes and it snowballed.”

Things looked good early for the Lions, who were making their first finals appearance since 1965. Viator had its first three batters reach base, with two coming home to score, and it appeared the Lions were on their way.

Mike Ragauskis opened the game with a walk and Shaun Falbo was hit by a pitch as Lemont starter Ryan Sublette,who came into the game a 9-game winner, had trouble settling his nerves.

Sublette uncorked a wild pitch, moving the runners up to second and third. On the very next pitch, Lemont catcher Casey O'Brien threw the return ball back to Sublette over his head, allowing Ragauskis to score.

Cole Kmet, who was at bat when all this occurred, then drilled a single to left, scoring Falbo and the Lions grabbed a 2-0 lead.

“It felt good to get off to the great start,” said Kmet, who will be on the mound in the third-place game on Saturday. “We felt good coming out at the start. We just couldn't keep it going after that.”

That's because Sublette, who threw 33 pitches in the first inning, regained his composure.

The Lions managed just 1 hit from there, a single by Chris Lolli in the sixth. They struck out a season-high 14 times on Friday and just had trouble catching up with Sublette, who is a junior.

“Their pitcher settled in,” Manno said. “He challenged us with fastballs and we didn't catch up in time. You have to give credit to him, today wasn't our day.”

Lemont coach Brian Storako, whose team won the Class 3A title two years ago, said it took a little time for Sublette to find his way.

“We came out a little shaky,” Storako said. “We talked about throwing strikes from the get-go and that didn't happen. Once Ryan settled down, it was much easier. And it is always good I when you score 10 runs.”

Napoleon, who fell to 10-3, was solid for the Lions early. The senior struck out the first 3 batters he faced, and 5 of the Indians' first 6 outs were one strikeouts.

“It definitely felt good to get that lead,” Napoleon said. “We knew we had to add more because they are a good team. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the momentum from the first inning.”

Lemont (29-9) finally was able to get things rolling offensively in the third thanks to a pair of infield hits and an error. A two-out single drove in 2 runs as the Indians led 3-2.

After pitching through the lineup twice, Napoleon left with his team trailing 3-2 after 4 innings.

“That was always the plan,” Napoleon said. “They are such a good hitting team, that we didn't want me to face them a third time through the lineup.”

Lemont added another run in the fifth after a lead off triple and and error made it 4-2.

The Indians broke the game open in the sixth, scoring 6 runs as they sent 11 batters to the plate and belted a pair of home runs.

“We made some errors, but they started to hit,” Manno said. “That was the one thing we were really worried about.”

It was errors and lack of hitting that led to the Lions dropping 7 straight back in April. But the Lions were able to regroup for the late-season run.

Manno said that he and his team are looking forward to their third-place game with Limestone.

“If you had asked anyone in the area in the midst of our 7-game losing streak that would we be here, no one would have,” Manno said. “But our kids believed in themselves. We had dreams to get down here. We still have another game left and we are looking forward to it.”