Baseball: Lemont comes up just short in Class 3A state championship game against Crystal Lake Central

JOLIET – Lemont’s Jacob Parr drove in 35 runs this season. He’ll be a senior next year.

Cannon Medaj went 7-2 with a 1.93 ERA for Lemont. He’ll be a junior next season. Brett Tucker had a state tournament to remember with key defensive plays, a triple and a double. He’ll be a junior as well.

Look up and down Lemont’s roster and you’ll see multiple talented players that will be back for more next season. They could be poised to add a third state title in baseball to their trophy case very soon.

It just won’t be this year.

Despite a strong start, Lemont couldn’t maintain momentum in the Class 3A state championship game Saturday against Crystal Lake Central. The Tigers, a 10th-seeded team in their sectional, pulled one last rabbit out of their hat during a magical postseason run to come from behind and beat Lemont 3-2 at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet.

“Our season from where we started to where we are now showed tremendous growth,” Lemont coach Brian Storako said. “I think I saw somewhere that we were 7-6 to start the season and we’re 31-10 to end. These kids battled and worked their rear ends off. I couldn’t be more proud of them. We may not have pulled it off today, but one game doesn’t define them. They’re going to go down in Lemont baseball history.”

Lemont (31-10) had been seeking its first state championship in eight years and third in program history. And did so despite entering the postseason as a fourth seed in its sectional.

“It was a great run,” Parr said. “We’ll have a lot of starters back next year so we’ll be hoping to do the same thing next year.”

For the game itself, it was a little strange early. Both Lemont and Crystal Lake Central managed to get runners on base the first two innings, but both also struggled with base running.

Lemont’s Max Michalak was caught stealing second base in the first inning while Matt Devoy was picked off in the second inning after a miscommunication with Storako at third base. The Tigers, meanwhile, nearly got the first run on the board in the bottom of the second, but Tucker managed a spectacular throw home where catcher Noah Tomaras tagged Tommy Korn out.

The first run came in the third following a passed ball on a dropped third strike that allowed Medaj to score from third and put Lemont up 1-0. Senior Nick Berardi’s RBI single in the top of the fourth scored Tucker and extended the lead to 2-0.

But the good vibes were short-lived.

Crystal Lake Central entered the postseason 14-14 and was the 10th seed in its sectional. Yet the Tigers found their way to the state championship game because they got hot at the right time. That’s exactly what they did in the bottom of the fifth.

James Dreher singled in Drew Welder and Carter Kelley to tie the game 2-2, and Rhett Ozment’s RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth scored John Dobbeck to put the Tigers up 3-2.

Parr was excellent through 4⅓ innings with five strikeouts, two hits allowed and two walks. Devoy had a double while Berardi drove in a run in the final game of his career. He, Michalak and Tomaras are three of the nine seniors on the roster that Storako was very appreciative of.

“They’ve carried on the legacy of the previous guys,” Storako said. “They took it all amicably and lived up to the standard brought on by our 2016 and 2014 teams. Those kids that started it, these kids carried it on. We’re grateful for that.”

While that group will be sorely missed, Lemont will be just fine on the field. The first runner-up finish in program history isn’t what Lemont was looking for this weekend, but the third state title in program history could be just around the corner.

“The future is bright,” Storako said. “We’re going to think about this and celebrate it, but we’re going to be back to work in a couple of weeks here and hopefully get back here next year.”