Baseball: Timothy Christian, Westmont advance to regional title game
Westmont's up-and-down regular season may have been a disappointment to the Sentinels, but the playoffs always loomed as a motivator.
The Sentinels started strong in Wednesday's Class 2A IC Catholic Prep baseball regional in Elmhurst, topping the host Knights 9-3 to advance to the title game.
Westmont (15-16) will face Timothy Christian at 11 a.m. Saturday. While the Trojans aim for their third straight regional title, Westmont seeks its first since 2015.
"After our last regular-season game we talked and said none of that matters," said Sentinels coach D.J. Cocks, whose program won sectional titles in 2014 and 2015 and finished third in the state in 2014. "We know we can do it. We have the talent to have a fantastic run here."
Westmont scored its runs in a 4-run second and 5-run third inning. They had 6 hits in the two innings and took advantage of two errors by IC Catholic Prep (11-20). The Knights put runners on base in every inning and pushed across 2 runs in the top of the seventh.
The Knights had the bases loaded with one out, but the hole was simply too deep. Caden Anderson retired three of the four batters he faced to preserve the victory for Alex Marotta, who scattered 5 hits in 6 innings.
"That's kind of been our story this season," said Knights coach Frank DeAngelis. "It's been the little things in one or two innings that really cost us. You've got to play seven innings or else this is what happens."
Malek Mostafa, Bobby Risden and Matt O'Leary drove in runs in the second inning for the Sentinels. Christian Alexander singled in a third-inning run while Risden added a 2-run single.
C.J. West, who threw 3 innings of scoreless relief, had an RBI single for the Knights in the top of the seventh.
"It was really important to get out to that big lead," Risden said. "They've got a good team and they can score a lot of runs. It was really fun today. It's a good experience for us."
Timothy Christian 15, Northridge Prep 6:
The Trojans (14-13) advanced to the Class 2A IC Catholic Prep regional final after building a 10-2 lead through four innings.
Jimmy Allen and Thomas Becvar each had inside-the-park home runs in the fourth inning and combined for 5 RBI. Harrison Stanton and Ty Merrick drove in 2 runs.
Jakob Loerop pitched 6 innings to earn the win. Trent Marrera sent Northridge Prep down in order in the seventh to end the game.
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