Green Wave surges past Latin

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Aside from an occasional home run trot, St. Edward hardly had to break a sweat in its sectional semifinal contest against Latin on Thursday.

The Green Wave manhandled the Romans to the tune of a 14-1 victory in five innings, earning a spot in the Class 2A Driscoll Sectional championship game Saturday morning against Aurora Christian (24-10).

St. Edward (18-12) showed off some patience and power at the plate against Latin (7-10). The Wave drew five walks while scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. A pair of solo home runs in the third and an eight-run outburst in the fourth accounted for the rest of the offense.

Jordan Torres led the onslaught, going 3-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored. He had one of three St. Edward home runs when he sent a tape-measure blast across the street beyond the left-field fence.

Mike Kondrath (2-for-3, two RBI, two runs) added a homer off the roof of a shed beyond the right-field wall and Jon Godfrey (2-for-3, three RBI) accounted for a third solo homer on a blast that hooked around the foul pole in left.

“We feel really good and we’re clicking as a team,” Godfrey said. “Our pitching has been phenomenal. Our defense, out hitting and just everything is clicking.”

St. Edward starter Jim Fraczek had an ominous start when he allowed a run in the top of the first on a pair of two-out hits. However, he didn’t give up another hit the rest of the way while cruising to the complete-game victory.

Fraczek (4-2) struck out five and walked one. His dominant effort sets the stage for ace Riley Coleman to take the mound Saturday when the Wave goes for its first sectional title in program history.

“The main point was to get your first strike down, get ahead in the count and control the count,” Fraczek said. “My fastball was really working and I thought I had a lot of pop.”

St. Edward only tallied nine hits while drawing seven walks. A 15-minute delay in the middle of the bottom of the fourth inning to fix a problem with the rubber on the mound didn’t deter the Wave, which sent 12 batters to the plate and tallied eight runs off three Latin pitchers during the marathon inning.

Junior Hunter Case (4-1) started and took the loss for the Romans, allowing eight earned runs on five hits while walking six.

The high run total was nothing new for the Wave, which has outscored its three postseason opponents 36-5.

“(Case) was bringing it in pretty (batting practice), so you had a lot of time to sit back and wait on the pitch and see what he’d throw,” Torres said.

Grant Simon singled and scored Latin’s only run on an RBI double by Matt Weiss. The Romans, who were making their first sectional appearance, had only one senior on their roster.

“Half the team is made up of freshmen and sophomores, so you saw some jitters,” coach Mindy Macius said. “It’s almost uncharted territory being from a small school in the city to get in the sectional, but we’re improving.”