Baseball: Late loss tough pill to swallow for Newman in IHSA 1A state semifinal

Comets suffer heartbreaking loss to Henry-Senachwine in Final Four

Newman head baseball coach Kenny Koerner talks to his team during the Class 1A State semifinal game on Friday, June 2, 2023 at Dozer Park in Peoria.

PEORIA – Kyle Wolfe deserved a much better fate.

The senior right-hander pitched a phenomenal game in his final start for Newman, allowing just two hits and three baserunners through 6 2/3 innings of the Comets’ Class 1A state semifinal Friday against Henry-Senachwine.

But a reach-out-and-touch-it single on an 0-2 pitch that was off the plate outside was poked into center field by Henry’s Carson Rowe, and that was just the crack in the door the Mallards needed. Zachary Barnes and Jacob Miller followed with two more singles, and Henry advanced to the 1A state championship game with a 2-1 walk-off win at Dozer Park.

After a gem in which 38 of his 48 pitches through six innings were strikes, Wolfe was left with a tough-luck loss. He finished the game with just 63 pitches, 46 of them strikes.

“Kyle pitched his butt off today, threw a really good game for us,” Newman coach Kenny Koerner said. “It’s one of those games where it takes a little luck and things go one way or the other, and you never know.”

Newman's third baseman Garet Wolfe makes a catch on the infield against Henry-Senachwine during the Class 1A State semifinal game on Friday, June 2, 2023 at Dozer Park in Peoria.

It was a game of breaks both ways. Henry’s first run scored after a one-out error, a stolen base and a single in the bottom of the second, then Newman’s first run crossed home when Isaiah Williams ran through a stop sign from Koerner in the third-base coach’s box and slid home ahead of an off-target throw to tie it in the top of the third.

“I don’t know if anybody saw that. I went back to my dugout and none of my assistants saw it,” Koerner said. “I wasn’t real happy with him running through my stop sign until I saw him score.”

But with Newman runners on first and second and nobody out after tying it 1-1, Henry shortstop Rowe was playing up the middle, and was in the perfect spot to field Wolfe’s scorching grounder. He stepped on second and fired to first for a double play to completely change the complexion of the inning.

With two outs and a runner on third, Brendan Tunink’s deep flyout to left field ended the inning; without the double play, it would’ve been a sacrifice fly to drive in the go-ahead run.

“If we got that run in, it would’ve been big, because we’d have a different mindset – especially in the seventh inning,” said Garret Matznick, whose single drove in Williams for the Comets’ lone run. “We would’ve been up one run, and we didn’t have to get that out; that last play wouldn’t have been all-or-nothing.”

Newman's Brendan Tunink makes a catch on the run against Henry-Senachwine during the Class 1A State semifinal game on Friday, June 2, 2023 at Dozer Park in Peoria.

The game-winning play was a single to short center field. Tunink charged hard and looked like he was going to come up firing for the plate to try and cut down Rowe at home. But the last hop took a funny sideways bounce, and Tunink couldn’t come up with it cleanly, allowing the run to score without a throw.

It was the bounce both offenses had been looking for, as Wolfe and Henry starter Mason Johnson both kept the opposing hitters off-balance by mixing different speeds and locations.

“I thought we hit the ball on the screws a few times and just didn’t have anything to show for it. There were a couple times I thought we tried to play a little small-ball, and didn’t execute and that hurt us early in the game,” Koerner said. “Kyle pitched a great game for us, and I thought we swung the bats pretty well, but we don’t have much to show for it with one run.

“Tip your hat to them, their pitcher pitched a nice game, kept us off-balance a little bit, and I thought he threw a good game.”

It’s always tough to lose in the state semifinals, but the way it happened to Newman was as heartbreaking as it comes. Still, Koerner didn’t think that it would affect the Comets in Saturday morning’s third-place game against Goreville.

“With this team, I expect nothing but a really good effort [Saturday]. That’s the way they’ve been doing it all year. We’ll take time to let this hurt a little bit the rest of the day, but I don’t have any doubts that we’ll be focused [Saturday] and ready to go again,” Koerner said. “These kids are tough, and they’ll be ready to go grind it out one more time. Only two teams win their last game of the year, so that’s the goal right now. Win that third place game, win that last game of the year.”

Ty Reynolds

Ty Reynolds

Ty is the Sports Editor at Sauk Valley Media, and has covered sports in the Sauk Valley for more than two decades.