Baseball: Great start carries Timothy Christian past Lisle
The first three batters Timothy Christian sent to the plate in the top of the first inning scored.
Those weren't all the runs Trojans got, but they were enough.
"That was the game in a nutshell," Lisle coach Pete Meyer said.
Behind the pitching of senior Nick Huisman, Timothy Christian rode that 3-run first inning to a 5-1 baseball victory against the Lions at the Class 2A IC Catholic Prep sectional final on Saturday morning.
"Our bats were on fire right away," said Huisman, still a little out of breath from the postgame celebration, "and it's very important to get those runs in the first inning. My teammates picked me up. Going out there with a lead is great. I didn't have my best stuff today, but I just pitched how I knew how to pitch. My teammates made the plays and it was good."
The Trojans (17-13) had the bats working from the start, launching each batted ball in the first inning to the outfield. Sophomore Harrison Stanton led off with a hard single to left and reached third base on Trent Marrera's ground-rule double to left. Senior Jimmy Allen drove both runners home with a triple to left center and scored on Huisman's sacrifice fly to center.
"I just said, man, when you can start off the game single, double, triple, sac fly and get three runs that quick, it just kind of puts you at ease a little bit," said Trojans coach Jim Snoeyink, whose team won its second consecutive sectional. "And then Nick pitched awesome. He has struggled. He'd be the first one to admit it. And he threw his best game of the year. It was great."
Lisle (21-12) threatened a few times. The Lions stranded 10 runners in the game, leaving the bases loaded in the third inning.
The Lions scored their only run in the sixth inning when junior A.J. Casmer walked, went to second base on another walk to sophomore Connor Nigro, reached third on junior Jay McGrath's flyout to center and scored on a wild pitch.
"We just couldn't do it," Meyer said. "We had our chances, no doubt about it."
The Trojans added an unearned run in the third inning, Thomas Becvar scoring on Connor Gwaltney's single to right field. The Trojans' fifth run, scored by Jake Loerop, came in the seventh and also was unearned.
Huisman threw 102 pitches over six innings, striking out three. Allen worked a scoreless seventh in relief, following Huisman's lead by stranding two Lisle runners.
Timothy Christian advanced to the Benedictine supersectional at 3 p.m. Monday against Herscher, a 13-0 winner vs. Chicago University.