LOCKPORT — Through a snappy six innings and 75 minutes of high school baseball, the two pitchers treated a standing-room-only crowd to a bit of masterpiece theater.
Then, in the seventh, Dan Cox and Tim Hanrahan performed some more postseason magic and Providence pulled another rabbit out its bottomless black rally cap.
Providence erupted for four runs in a hair-raising 4-3 victory over Neuqua Valley in a 4A sectional semifinal on Wednesday night at Flink Field.
The victory was the fourth straight for Providence (21-15), all in the playoffs and all of the come-from-behind cardiac-arrest variety. The Celtics move on to face Lockport or Naperville Central at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the sectional final.
The Porters and Redhawks meet in a rematch in Game 2 at 6 p.m. Thursday. The two first met during the regular season and Lockport escaped with an 11-10 victory.
Cox, Providence’s No. 9 hitter, stepped up with one out and the bases loaded, the Celtics trailing 1-0 in the top of the seventh and the game riding in the balance. He worked the count to 2-2 against Neuqua’s left-handed reliever Chris Widup.
Widup was summoned after Wildcat starter Craig Provow (4-3) turned from Superman to a victim of kryptonite. He sailed through 6 1/3 innings with a two-hit shutout and seven strikeouts. Then, he yielded a single to Providence’s A.J. Woynerowski and issued back-to-back walks to Colin McEnery and Brian Davis.
Cox beat out a slow roller to short on a bang-bang play at first for a game-tying infield single.
“I just wanted to put the ball in play,” he said. “And, then, with two strikes on me, I didn’t want to go down swinging. I didn’t want it to be my last game as a senior. So, I wanted to put the ball in play and give my team a chance to win.”
Widup fanned Providence’s Joe Houlihan for the second out of the inning.
Hanrahan followed with a two-run single to left that put the Celtics on top 3-1. He didn’t hit the ball hard — but found the hole between third and short. Mike Morrissette added a run-scoring single to extend Providence’s lead to 4-1. Hanrahan was thrown out trying to reach third on the play.
Sophomore left-hander Matt Trowbridge made the lead stand up — but not without getting into some trouble himself in the bottom of the seventh. He walked Neuqua’s Mike Gerber on a 3-2 pitch and moments later grooved a 3-2 fastball that the Wildcats’ Kyle Mener smacked over the fence in left for a two-run homer. Mener’s one-out blast pulled Neuqua within 4-3.
Providence coach Mark Smith made a quick trip to the mound. His presence — and his voice — calmed Trowbridge down. The little lefty struck out Provow and Joe Ippolito to finish with a four-hitter and eight strikeouts. Trowbridge (5-1) earlier was nicked for an unearned run in the third. Neuqua’s Jeff Dean reached on an infield hit and took second on a throwing error. He scored on a two-out RBI double by Ryan Wagner.
“It’s exhilarating,” Trowbridge said. “This is definitely one of the great moments of the season. I was just trying to throw strikes and my teammates supported me out there with the double plays. That really gave me a boost. Even though we were down the whole game, I knew that we would come back. We’ve always been coming back — every game. I knew that would never stop.”
Providence trailed by margins of 6-2 or more in all three of its previous postseason victories — 8-6 over Downers Grove North, 7-6 over Lincoln-Way East and 9-7 over Joliet Township. Hanrahan’s RBI single in the seventh put them ahead for good against Downers Grove North.
“We’re comfortable when we’re behind now,” he said. “I think there’s not a kid in the dugout who doesn’t want to be the guy up in that situation in the seventh inning. It’s any of us that can come through in the clutch. It’s an awesome feeling to do it over and over again. Everyone’s hitting their stride at the right time, and we’re playing our best baseball in the playoffs.”
No mountain it too tall for the Celtics to climb.
“I told them, ‘I said, all right, this is different boys,’ ” Smith said. “ ‘We’re only trailing 1-0 right now. Let’s continue to have fun. Stay relaxed. Do what you’ve done all year long. And no matter what happens we’re going to go down fighting and see what happens.’
“And, sure enough, they have that confidence about them right now that, ‘You know what, hey, we can do this.’ Fortunately, we did get two walks there. We did get a nice hit by A.J. (Woynerowski) with one out to get things started. Then, the two walks. With Cox — I said, ‘Put the ball in place and see what happens.’ He placed it absolutely perfectly and was able to beat it out.
“I’d have to say that’s kind of the luck part of it — we got a break there. But we created it. It’s not like they gave us anything. Danny (Cox) earned that. And Timmy (Hanrahan) coming up with the big two-out hit and getting it in the hole. And Mike (Morrissette) coming up with the base hit to give us the three-run lead, which obviously we needed.
“But I can’t say who proud I am of these kids. They have grown and matured and really started to become a team these last few weeks.”
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