St. Francis uses potent offense, strong pitching to beat Dixon in 5 innings and advance to sectional finals

MAPLE PARK – Colt Armbrust went into Thursday’s Class 3A sectional semifinal knowing he needed to throw strikes.

What the St. Francis senior didn’t know was that he would have a three-run lead by the time he took to the mound for the first time against No. 5 Dixon.

So when he saw that, it gave him even more confidence.

“It just really helped with my confidence and being able to go out there and throw strikes,” Armbrust said. “Just getting those quick outs so we could keep the game moving.”

And as the game progressed and the Spartans’ score kept getting higher, so did the pitcher’s confidence.

Armbrust finished the game tossing a one-hit shutout while striking out 10 as the top-seeded Spartans took down the Dukes 14-0 in five innings to advance to a Class 3A sectional final.

“We’ve faced teams like Dixon before and we’ve come out flat,” Spartans coach Tom Ciombor said. “So it was nice to see the top of the order set the tone and jump out right away. And you know, Colt is Colt, and he just dealt for us.”

The Spartans (26-9) face Benet in the sectional title game Saturday. The Redwings defeated Burlington Central 3-0 in a nine-inning thriller. It’ll be the Spartans’ first sectional final since 2021, when they beat Ridgewood.

While Armbrust was dealing on the mound, the offense was giving him plenty of breathing room. Leading the scoring department was senior Joey Gainer, who tallied three RBIs off a sacrifice fly in the first and a two-run double in the second.

“Our coach has always put a big emphasis on team at-bats, and that’s what I’m always thinking in the box,” said Gainer, a Missouri Southern commit. “Our offense has really clicked this year, and we have a lot of hardworking guys in the dugout. We worked like crazy and got those swings in in the offseason, and now it’s just us going out there and having fun.”

Gainer was far from the only Spartan to have fun on offense. Senior Nolan Galla had three RBIs, seniors Brady Carroll and Zack Maduzia each scored three times, and sophomore James McGrath got on base in all four plate appearances with two hits and two walks.

It was a rough ending for Dixon (14-16), who had won two straight for a regional title after ending the regular season with 11 straight losses. Junior Jake Whelan recorded the only hit for the Dukes in the first inning.

But even with the tough bow out, Dukes coach Jason Burgess said it was a solid learning experience for his young team.

“For our guys to get here, that was Step 1, but once we got here I knew we were going to face some really talented programs,” Burgess said. “This team was not built for that. We competed our butts off, but they’re not that caliber yet.

“This is a big learning curve for these guys. We worked hard to get to this point, and I’m proud of them for that. Now we’ve got to overcome that hump, and they’ve got to start believing that they can compete with these upper-echelon teams once they get there. But sometimes losing a game in that way teaches us something, and that’s going to be fuel for us next year.”