Baseball: Lisle, Timothy Christian advance to sectional final
Two-out magic must be contagious.
Lisle scored 8 runs - seven with two outs - in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for Wednesday's 10-6 victory over DePaul Prep in the Class 2A IC Catholic Prep sectional semifinals in Elmhurst.
The Lions (20-11) advance to the sectional title game to face Timothy Christian (16-13), a 9-2 winner over Holy Trinity, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Lisle trailed 6-3 after Dylan Laue's one-out RBI triple in the sixth, but then a strikeout put the Lions four outs away from elimination. Suddenly, they came alive.
Eight straight batters reached base including a 2-run single by Damien Guerrero and back-to-back bases-loaded walks to A.J. Casmer and starting pitcher Connor Nigro. Jay McGrath added an infield single that drove in a run and Laue singled in 2 more runs.
Lisle went from having their season nearly ended to holding a comfortable 10-6 lead. Reliever Emmett Malavia, who pitched 4 innings, closed it out in the top of the seventh.
"We've played catchup baseball all year and today it really clicked," Laue said. "We wanted to keep it going so we could get ahead and shut it down the next inning. We didn't lose any hope or any energy."
Lisle took a 1-0 lead in the first but the Rams jumped to a 3-1 third-inning lead. McGrath narrowed the gap to 3-2 with a third-inning RBI triple, but DePaul Prep again surged ahead with a 3-run fifth.
DePaul Prep made some great defensive plays throughout the game, allowing Lisle only 2 hits through five innings. The Lions finally found some holes in the sixth.
"We just kept believing," said Lisle coach Pete Meyer. "We kept hitting the ball hard right at them. It didn't look like it was our day, but we kept believing."
Timothy Christian appeared headed for an easy win after taking a 4-0 first-inning lead, but Holy Trinity didn't make it easy on the Trojans.
Holy Trinity pulled within 4-2 in the fourth inning and then had the bases loaded in the sixth. Trojans pitcher Trent Marrera, relieving starter Jake Loerop, got a huge strikeout to emerge unscathed from the threat.
That energy powered the Trojans to a 5-run bottom of the sixth.
"Our bats came alive at the right time," said Trojans first baseman Nick Huisman, who had a 2-run double and an RBI single. "Hopefully we can keep it going."
Connor Gwaltney had a 2-run double and a 2-run triple. Thomas Becvar contributed a sacrifice fly in the sixth for the Trojans, who will vie for their second straight sectional title on Saturday.
"That's our goal, to keep moving up," said Trojans coach Jim Snoeyink. "We're one step closer."
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