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OGLESBY – With the regular season winding down and the regional only three weeks away, La Salle-Peru baseball coach Matt Glupczynski knows the Cavaliers will be in close games.
He was happy with how the Cavs performed in a tight game Wednesday.
Julius Sanchez had another strong start, the Cavs scratched across a couple of runs, and Mason Lynch shut the door with the help of a couple of solid defensive plays as L-P beat Rochelle, 2-0, in an Interstate Eight Conference game.
“I thought we played an excellent game,” Glupczynski said. “The kid on the mound for Rochelle [Braden Alfano] was awesome. That’s the type of guy that we’re going to see in the regional. That’s going to be the type of game we’ll be in, so it was good to see our guys grind it out and keep fighting.”
Sanchez was dominant, allowing three hits while striking out 13 batters, walking four and hitting one in six innings.
“Julius did what he always does,” Glupczynski said. “He takes the ball every six days, and he pounds the zone and competes. Even when he gets a base runner, you never see him rattled. There were two or three times they had guys in scoring position with one out or no outs, and he was able to battle back and get us out of it. So it was just another quality start like he’s been doing all year for us.”
The Hubs had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, including runners on second and third with no outs in the second and a runner at third to start the third after a leadoff triple by Eric Briseno.
But Sanchez struck out two batters in each inning and got a flyout and popout.
“I just reverted back to my mechanics, stay in my zone and use my fastball to get past kids and just get the job done,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez walked the first two batters of the seventh inning before he was pulled in favor of Lynch.
After allowing a single to load the bases, Lynch induced a slow roller down the third base line. Third baseman Nolan Van Duzer scooped it up and threw it home for an out.
Lynch struck out the next batter for the second out.
Nate Burdin then hit a bouncing ground ball to the right side that skipped over first baseman Josh Senica, who was moving to his right.
The ball looked destined for right field, but second baseman Billy Mini grabbed it and threw it to Lynch running toward the bag for the final out.
“Hats off to Billy Mini because he was on the bench the whole game before we brought him in on a switch,” Glupczynski said. “He could have easily fallen asleep on that play thinking it was not his ball. The ball took a hop over the first baseman’s head, and he’s there, then makes a great touch throw, and Mason was there. It was just real heads-up baseball there.
“Mason came in in a tough spot with the first two guys getting on, but he came in and pounded the zone. His two pitches were working, he trusted his defense, and the rest is history.”
The Cavs scored their first run in the second inning when Aidan Van Duzer hit a high pop fly that landed between multiple fielders in shallow center field, and the L-P catcher hustled for a double.
Mini, Van Duzer’s courtesy runner, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Brendan Boudreau and scored on an errant pickoff throw.
In the fifth, Lynch singled up the middle, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on a single to left by Brady Romagnoli.
“The first run we scored, Aidan Van Duzer was hustling out of the box on a routine pop fly,” Glupczynski said. “We get the bunt down, and then they tried to pick off, and we get the run. The little things really helped us in that situation.
“Later in the game, Brady Romagnoli came up in a lefty-lefty matchup. He’s young. He’s only a sophomore. He hung in there with two strikes and takes it over the shortstop’s head to get a second run.”