Providence gets lift from reliever Wajda, topples Joliet Catholic

Sometimes a team gets a much needed lift from a relief pitcher in the middle of a game.

And that’s exactly what happened Wednesday afternoon as Providence reliever Jack Wajda entered the game and changed the momentum against Joliet Catholic, as the Celtics earned a hard-fought 6-4 win over Hilltoppers.

Wajda entered the contest with the score tied at 3 in the bottom of the fifth inning. He needed only 13 pitches to mow through three consecutive Hilltoppers batters, striking out each of them.

Buoyed by the impressive pitching effort, the Celtics offense also caught a spark, stringing together three consecutive RBI singles from Brayden Gerrigan, Tyler Young and Cain Headrick to take a three-run lead and control of the game.

“Waj was a huge reason for why all of that happened,” Providence coach Mark Smith said. “He went out there and struck out the side, and he came into that dugout with some juice. And everybody just kind of lifted from it. It was a boost that this team needed. That was big. We needed this one. It was important to get this one and we did.”

Until Wajda entered in relief the outcome was far from certain. Providence starter Alex Alberico did a nice job of avoiding a big inning from the Hilltoppers’ offense, but seemed to be darting in out of trouble every inning.

Wajda entered and powered through the fifth inning and allowed only two hits and an unearned run in the sixth in his relief appearance.

“I like that role. I’m just trying to think about getting ahead first pitch. Once I get ahead first pitch, they are done. I can just empty the tank and let it go,” Wajda said. “This is a big rival for us, and it’s a game we always have circled on our schedule, and I’m just glad we came out with the W.”

The two teams traded blows early in the game but seemed to miss several opportunities to have big innings. Providence seemed poised to blow the game open in first after Garrigan walked, stole second and third and then stole home on the back end of a delayed steal off of a throw attempt to get the trail runner. But despite reloading the bases that would be all Providence would get in the inning.

Joliet Catholic generated an unearned run to tie it in its half of the first and then took the lead briefly, scoring a run in its half of the second. Providence tied the game again at 2-all on a sacrifice fly by Gavin Gomez, after Tyler Young had a triple to lead off the inning.

The Hilltoppers took the lead back in the third, scoring a run on a passed ball. But in the second, third and fourth innings Joliet Catholic left multiple runners on base with a chance to add to the scoreboard, but that simply didn’t happen.

Providence did a better job of stringing hits together when they needed to, despite missing several chances of its own. Gomez tied the game in the Providence half of the fifth inning before the Celtics took control with their sixth-inning outburst.

“I think both teams left a lot of guys out there,” Smith said. “Credit to the pitchers for making pitches when they needed to, but I think we need to do a better job of attacking the zone than we did today. But yeah, we finally we got some big clutch hits when we needed them, and hopefully that’s something that gets us going because we’ve been struggling and hopefully that’s a sign of what’s to come.”