Baseball: Joliet Catholic fends off Wilmington to claim regional crown

COAL CITY – It appeared Joliet Catholic was well on its way to cruising to the Class 2A Coal City Regional crown on Saturday.

Trey Swiderski had just extended the Hilltoppers advantage to five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and Joliet Catholic only needed to get the last three outs to secure its place in its own sectional tournament.

“It was a little bit too exciting for us. With our schedule and with what we set up throughout the season, we play in a lot of games just like that, with a lot of pressure situations. And hopefully that sets you up for something like this.”

—  Jared Voss, Joliet Catholic coach

That proved to be a little bit more difficult than anticipated, but Joliet Catholic’s postseason survival instinct kicked in just in time as it got that elusive third out after Wilmington had scored three runs and loaded the bases before Joliet Catholic was able to hold on to a 5-3 win.

“It was a little bit too exciting for us,” Joliet Catholic coach Jared Voss said. “With our schedule and with what we set up throughout the season, we play in a lot of games just like that, with a lot of pressure situations. And hopefully that sets you up for something like this.”

The Hilltoppers (20-8-1) will face Leo (12-15) in the sectional semifinal round at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Joliet Catholic looked as if it was going to coast to the hardware after adding what appeared to be unnecessary insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run single from Trey Swiderski to stretch its lead to 5-0.

But Wilmington (16-10) had other ideas.

The Wildcats had only managed two hits and not much solid contact off of Joliet Catholic starter T.J. Schlageter through the first six innings. But after striking out Reid Juster to start the seventh for his 11th strikeout, things started to get a little wobbly for the Louisville commit, as Wilmington coaxed a walk and got a clean single from Joey Allgood.

That brought a call to the bullpen to summon Swiderski, who got a rude welcome to the game with a double from Joe Cortese that cut the lead to 5-2. Swiderski got a strikeout for the second out, but then surrendered another single to Ryan Kettman and back-to-back walks to Lucas Fink and Luke Farrell, the second of which pushed in a run to make it 5-3.

With the bases loaded, Swiderski was able to induce a shallow fly out to left field and allow the Hilltoppers to move on and see another day.

“I was just glad Trey was able to come in and close it out,” Schlageter said. “I ran out of gas a little at the end, but I was able to use the fastball/curve combo pretty well. I felt like I was able to throw everything for strikes and put it where I wanted to.”

Schlaegter hummed through the first five innings, allowing just three total baserunners, two on errors and the other on a legged-out infield hit by Kettman.

Joliet Catholic had to work to get its offense off of Wilmington starter Joe Cortese, who deserved a better fate.

The Hilltoppers pushed across two runs, one of which was unearned, in the third when it was able to string together three consecutive hits after a runner reached on an error to start the frame. Cortese avoided further damage by striking out consecutive batters to end the frame

In the fifth, another error allowed Zach Beitler the opportunity to drive in Joliet Catholic’s third run with a single.

In Wilmington’s half of the sixth, the Wildcats appeared to have something cooking after Kettman drew a walk and Rink singled to right field. Kettman tried to get to third on the hit, but was thrown out on an extremely close call at the bag that was disputed by Wilmington coach Mike Bushnell and led to his ejection from the game.

Wilmington went quietly after the contentious call, grounding out and striking out to end the inning and denying it a very good chance of at least slicing into the deficit.

Joliet Catholic added the insurance it turned out to need in its half of the sixth and then hung on to ensure it has the chance to play at least one more game at Gordon Gillespie Field this year.

“When the state sends you the stuff and you find you are not hosting a regional and you are hosting a sectional, you really hope you are in it,” Voss said. “There’s nothing worse than raking a field when you’re not playing on it.”