Baseball: Bats go cold for Burlington Central
STERLING - The timely hit never came.
The Burlington Central baseball team averaged 8 runs per game in three playoff wins entering Saturday's Class 3A sectional final against Stillman Valley, but the Rockets were unable to generate that type of production in a 3-2 loss.
Minnesota-bound senior Andrew Wilhite (9-1) pitched Stillman Valley (30-7) into Monday's Augustana supersectional against Morton by spinning a 6-hitter with 2 walks and 11 strikeouts.
"It didn't happen at the right time for us," said Central coach Kyle Nelson, whose team had won 11 in a row. "We just couldn't get that big hit."
The sectional title is Stillman Valley's first in baseball.
"We've never done this as a baseball team so this is just great for the players, the coaches, Stillman Valley as a town," Wilhite said. "It's just amazing."
Burlington Central (24-10) made the Cardinals sweat in the bottom of the seventh. Zach Schutta led off with a single to left field and Colton Wallace followed with a sharp single up the middle.
Wilhite fed the next three Rockets a heavy diet of breaking pitches parsed by the occasional fastball. He struck out Ryan Knowlton, who had homered in each of Central's three playoff wins, looking at a curveball on the inner black.
A double steal by Schutta and courtesy runner Adam Finstein put the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position. Wilhite responded by freezing Caden Scott on an outside fastball for the second out.
The 6-foot-1, right-hander then jumped ahead in the count 0-2 against Andrew Griffin and coaxed a game-ending groundout to senior shortstop Jake Rose.
"We battled to the end. It was a good team effort," Central senior Paddy McKermitt said.
The Rockets grabbed a 1-0, first-inning lead on an unearned run.
The Cardinals tied it 1-1 in the top of the third on Wilhite's sacrifice fly off Central starting pitcher Tyler Perez. The left-hander held the Cardinals to an earned run on 3 hits and a walk in 4 innings.
Stillman Valley notched an unearned run in the fifth inning against relief pitcher Bradley Dinges to take a 2-1 lead, aided by one of Central's 3 errors.
The Rockets forged a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the frame when Scott reached on a bases-loaded dropped third strike. That allowed McKermitt to slide safely across home plate head first.
An sixth-inning infield error opened the door for the Cardinals. Rose followed with a single and No. 9 hitter Adam Wenberg singled to center field to drive in what proved to be the winning run.
Central left 10 runners on base, partly due to Wilhite, partly due to bad luck. Four balls were hit hard but right at outfielders. Schutta laced a line drive with a runner at second base in the second inning, but the right fielder barely had to move to catch it.
"Sometimes luck comes your way in baseball," Schutta said. "Sometimes it doesn't."
The Rockets were eliminated in the round of 16 for the second straight season, though they survived three nail-biters to advance.
"You just hope you're playing for a sectional title and eventually they're going to start breaking our way," Nelson said.
"I'm proud of the way they played, though, proud of what they did to get here. We got swept by Richmond at one point. We were 13-9. It was nice to see them put it together and get to this point."