Baseball: Newman rallies to beat Goreville, finish 3rd in IHSA Class 1A State Tournament

PEORIA – The Newman Comets lost their Class 1A state semifinal game against Henry-Senachwine on Friday at Dozer Park in about the most heartbreaking way imaginable.

But the pain of that loss quickly turned into motivation in their third-place game against the Goreville Blackcats on Saturday.

After slipping into a two-run deficit in the top of the fifth inning, the Comets’ offense finally awakened. Scoring six unanswered runs between the fifth and sixth innings, Newman rallied to a 6-2 win, securing a third-place finish in its Final Four debut.

[ Photos: Newman vs Goreville class 1A third place baseball ]

“It’s really special,” Newman senior second baseman Nolan Britt said. “The past three years, the three years I’ve been playing high school baseball, we’ve made history for Newman. And it’s really special doing it as a senior with all the seniors I’ve been doing it with over the years.”

“It’s great to be a part of it, great to be a part of the turnaround, the turnaround team,” Newman senior shortstop Kyle Wolfe added. “I hope the experience of us and our legacy lives through some of the younger kids, and they can keep coming back and competing.”

After a game-tying rally in the bottom of the fifth, the Comets (23-9) broke the game open with a four-run sixth.

With runners on first and second base with two outs, Kyle Wolfe approached the plate. His at-bat was the beginning of the end for the Blackcats (25-15).

The ensuing bloop single to left field drove in sophomore Joe Oswalt for a 3-2 lead, as junior Isaiah Williams went to second. But the Comets weren’t done yet.

In the next at-bat, junior Brendan Tunink blasted a three-run, inside-the-park home run deep to center field, stretching the lead to 6-2 and all but sealing the win.

“I was a little mad that they intentionally walked me twice, so I came up there, and I was like, ‘All right. I’m going to hit the first ball that’s in the strike zone, and I’m going to drive it somewhere,’” Tunink said. “And that was basically my approach. And I got it.”

“It was amazing. Pure joy. Adding those three insurance runs was huge,” Kyle Wolfe said. “It gave us all confidence in the world to go out in the last inning with Nolan on the mound and shut it out.”

In the top of the seventh, Britt shut the door on a comeback, striking out sophomore Grant Krack before inducing two groundouts around sophomore Cole Tripp’s single. Britt came on for Tunink in the top of the fifth, and after giving up two runs on three hits in his first inning on the mound, he pitched a one-hit shutout for the last two, sealing the history-making win.

“I just knew I had to go in and throw strikes,” Britt said. “The defense has been great throughout the whole playoffs, so I just wanted to make them put the ball in play, tried to throw off-speed and get them to roll over and make weak contact.”

“For me, Nolan was huge. The last half of the season, Nolan has been really, really good for us on the bump,” Newman coach Kenny Koerner said. “We needed strikes, we needed somebody to come in and shut the door after we tied it up. We knew Brendan wasn’t going to be able to go real long today – we’ve been using him quite a bit in the postseason – so we knew we needed somebody to step up today, and Nolan did it. And it was really big for us.”

Tunink pitched the first four innings for Newman, going toe-to-toe with Goreville junior Hunter Francis in a pitchers’ duel.

In the top of the first, Tunink struck out two around a walk to Francis, then senior catcher Jaesen Johns picked off Francis as he tried to steal third base.

In the bottom of the second, Francis conceded a one-out double to freshman Garet Wolfe, but struck out the next two batters.

Tunink worked a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third, and Newman nearly drew first blood in the bottom of the inning, but a Francis double play and subsequent groundout kept runners on first and third.

On the double play, Francis made a terrific diving catch on a low-line drive from Kyle Wolfe, then got to his feet and threw out the runner going back to first.

Sophomore Daniel Kelly went to third on a groundout, then Tunink drew an intentional walk to put runners on the corners, but Francis grounded out the next batter to maintain the scoreless tie.

Tunink pitched one more scoreless inning before Britt relieved him in the top of the fifth.

Francis worked a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth, then the Blackcats broke through with a two-run top of the fifth.

Church led off and grounded a ball to short and reached on a low, errant throw to first to start the rally. Freshman Zach Green followed with a perfect bunt near the third-base line, beating the throw to first, then Krack roped an RBI single to third, scoring Church for a 1-0 lead.

“Yeah, I definitely got the pitch I wanted,” Krack said. “I was just trying to put the ball in play and score.”

Sophomore Nick Gower popped up a bunt into foul territory next, and Williams came up from his first base spot and made an impressive sliding catch for the first out.

Tripp followed with a flyout, then Francis ripped an RBI single into the right-field gap, scoring Green for a 2-0 lead.

But Newman came right back in the bottom of the fifth, tying the game with a two-run rally of its own. Williams drew a leadoff walk and Kelly was hit by a pitch to set the table with no outs. Kyle Wolfe followed a strikeout with an RBI double to right field, pulling it just out of the reach of the diving right fielder while keeping it a foot or two inside of the right-field line.

Tunink drew an intentional walk next, then senior Ian Sopczak relieved Francis on the mound. Sopczak struck out the first batter he faced, but Britt followed with a two-out RBI single to short, plating Kelly for the tying run.

“It really boosted us, especially being down,” Tunink said about the game-tying rally. “We’ve been down probably the past four to five games, so it didn’t really bother us too much. We’ve been there before, so getting the two runs and knowing it’s basically 0-0 now and we can actually win this one made a big difference for us.”

Tunink went 2 for 2 with the three-run home run, drew two intentional walks, and pitched a one-hit shutout through four innings, striking out six with three walks. Kyle Wolfe went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Britt pitched three innings of relief, allowing two runs on four hits, striking out two with one walk.

Francis went 4 1/3 innings on the mound, allowing two runs on five hits, striking out five with three walks.

“It’s tough. After yesterday, we were right there and we thought we had a chance to get to the championship game,” Goreville coach Shawn Tripp said. “And when you get beat like that, the next morning at 9 o’clock, it’s tough to get ready. And our mood was really not there like I wanted it to be this morning. We’re still competitive, we still wanted to win, but we just didn’t play our game today.”