Baseball: Talarico, Marmion take out St. Charles East
Playing its third postseason game in five days, Marmion's baseball team was looking for a spot start from junior pitcher Nick Talarico Saturday morning.
Talarico, who saw limited action on the mound this season due to shoulder tendinitis, stepped up in big fashion with 5 scoreless innings during the Cadets' 9-2 victory over host St. Charles East in the Class 4A regional championship.
"I only had one start previous to this and a couple relief appearances," said Talarico. "Coach (Frank Chapman) asked me how my arm was and I said, 'it's fine - I'm ready to roll.'"
Talarico (4-0) did just that, limiting the Saints (23-10-1) to 5 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts over a 77-pitch outing.
"The plan coming in was doing the (Tampa Bay) Rays' kind of reverse bullpen thing they've been doing," said Chapman. "Try and get him his two innings and keep the pitch count down and he gave us five (innings)."
"The adrenaline was rushing," said Talarico. "I was so ecstatic to be out there."
Marmion (16-18), which placed third in the Class 3A state tournament last season before being moved up to 4A, advances to Wednesday's Bartlett sectional semifinals against Lake Park (21-14), which defeated St. Charles North 3-2 Saturday to win the Hoffman Estates regional.
The Cadets staked Talarico to an early lead with a 3-run second.
Brandon McPherson (4-for-4) led off with a single and stood at second before junior Mitch Nieweglowski's 2-out RBI single between third and short made it 1-0. Two batters later, Jack Molenhouse (2-for-5) extended the margin to 3-0 with a 2-run single.
Marmion padded its lead to 8-0 with a 5-run third that featured Bryce Burton's 2-run home run and a 2-run double to the right-center gap from Minnesota-bound Chase Stanke.
"We struggled low and away and we struggled with the breaking ball against Batavia so we saw the curveball machine for about an hour yesterday in BP," said Chapman. "Then about 14 guys went out and hit for another three hours on their own last night. I think their work paid off a little bit today. It was good to see."
Talarico escaped a 2-on, 1-out jam in the bottom of the first before settling down from there.
"The first inning helped and to come back with a three-spot on the board (in the second) - that was a huge confidence booster for not only me but the entire team," said Talarico. "We took that and kept rolling with it."
St. Charles East snapped the shutout bid in the seventh on Charlie Charpentier's RBI double and John DelloStritto's run-producing fielder's choice.
Drew Conn went 3-for-3 and pitched 1⅓ scoreless innings for the Saints.
"We just didn't get it done all the way around with this group today," said Saints coach Len Asquini. "We knew they (Cadets) were a good team and they showed it again today.
Brett Brueske (6-2) suffered the loss for the Saints, who won 11 of their last 13 games while capturing the Upstate Eight Conference River Division title.
"The last three weeks were super fun with this group," said Asquini. "It's the last time we're going to be in the Upstate Eight. Winning that conference title - that's a proud moment right there."