Baseball: Bimbi pitches Crystal Lake South into sectional final

The Crystal Lake South baseball team's late-season tear continued Wednesday with a 5-1 victory over Prairie Ridge in a Class 3A Grayslake Central sectional semifinal.

Winning pitcher Jacob Bimbi held Fox Valley Conference co-champion Prairie Ridge (27-10) to an earned run on 6 hits and 2 walks and struck out 10 in 6 innings.

Reliever Beiker Fuentes notched a bases-loaded strikeout on a 3-2 fastball to complete the save.

"We used Bimbi to the max limit (115 pitches) and he really attacked the zone and trusted his defense," Gators coach Brian Bogda said. "Getting 10 strikeouts obviously helped out. That last inning we knew PR would make it tough, but Beiker got the strikeout to end the game."

Crystal Lake South (24-10) advances to the sectional final against the Carmel-Grayslake Central winner Saturday at 11 a.m.

The Gators, 8-8 on April 20, have won 16 of 18. They return to a sectional final for the first time since 2017, when they won the Class 4A state title.

"We played some very, very good teams early on in the conference season, starting with Cary-Grove, Prairie Ridge and Hampshire, who were among five teams in our conference to win a regional," Bogda said. "I think the guys learned from each of those series what we could do and what we could do better. I'm proud of the way they trusted each other, trusted us and have grown with each game."

Senior Michael Patterson took the loss for the Wolves after allowing 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 2⅔ innings.

Nick Benedetto drove in 2 runs, including a sacrifice fly that got the Gators on the scoreboard first in a 3-run third-inning. Patrick Fischer went 2-for-4 and scored on a wild pitch, and Henry Tipton and Ben Peltz (RBI) each contributed 2 hits.