Cservenyak serves up win for Hilltoppers

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Steve Cservenyak is eighth in Joliet Catholic baseball coach Jared Voss’ usual batting order.

Not what you might expect from a senior with Cservenyak’s smooth left-handed stroke and strength, but why mess with a good thing?

Cservenyak broke a 2-2 tie with a grand slam in the fourth inning, sent a two-run blast into orbit in the fifth and very nearly had a third dinger in the sixth Saturday morning as the Hilltoppers broke away from Illiana Christian 11-2 in the title game of the Class 3A Crete-Monee Sectional.

JCA (29-5) advances into Monday’s 4:30 p.m. supersectional at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood against the winner of Saturday night’s matchup between U-High and Jones. With a victory there, the Hilltoppers would advance to the 3A state semifinals at Silver Cross Field for a second straight year.

JCA had three hits but had stranded only two runners through three innings against Illiana sophomore right-hander Austin Evenhouse as the Hilltoppers and junior right-hander Kendall Paluch trailed 2-0 entering the bottom the fourth.

But Andrew Cecchi and John Gerl walked and Nate Ruzich pushed a bunt past Evenhouse for a single to fill the bases with nobody out. The tone was about to turn 180 degrees.

“I wanted Nate to get the bunt down and move the runners,” Voss said with a smile. “I didn’t necessarily want him trying to push it past the pitcher. But we got the roll.”

Senior designated hitter A.J. Plese followed with a two-run double in the left-field corner to tie it 2-2. The goose egg was off the scoreboard, and the Hilltoppers were on their way.

“That was a huge hit by A.J.,” Voss said. “It lifted that cloud of tightness that seemed to be around us until then. He smoked it.”

“The main thing was the guys in front of me getting on base,” Plese said. “The way Ruzich executed the bunt, and then getting a hit out of it — and he’s a catcher.”

Kevin Hulbert then walked, and Cservenyak untied things with the ultimate, a grand slam to left-center field for a 6-2 JCA lead, eventually making a winner of Paluch (10-2), who worked five innings and allowed two runs on four hits, all in the first two innings.

“This was a great game for four innings,” Cservenyak said. “We knew they (Vikings) would come out hot against us, but we would be OK if we just stayed within ourselves.”

“What happened was the second time through our lineup, we decided to take some pitches,” Voss said. “We got a couple walks, and things opened up.”

Evenhouse departed in favor of left-hander Vince VanSchouwen after Cservenyak’s slam, and it was deja vu all over again an inning later.

JCA scored five times in fifth on Ruzich’s single, Plese’s RBI single, Hulbert’s RBI double off the right-field fence, Cservenyak’s two-run homer (which knocked another pitcher from the mound, as Seth Wiltjer relieved VanSchouwan), and back-to-back doubles by Steve Fehrenbacher and Dave Cladis. That was Cladis’ third straight hit and upped the JCA lead to 11-2.

But about that second Cservenyak homer, his 11th this season, tying Ed Rompa and Aaron Capista for the school record.

You had the feeling when you saw it leave the yard beyond the 370-foot mark in right-center field that it went a long way. A trustworthy JCA fan was watching the game from outside the right-field fence. He marked where the ball landed, walked off the distance and called The Herald News with word that it traveled 120 feet beyond the fence.

And, the wind was virtually calm.

You may or may not want to go with 490 as an official distance, but rest assured, high school home runs seldom go farther.

“The first homer was definitely one of the shortest I’ve hit,” Cservenyak said. “The second one, I knew that was out.”

“Steve is amazing,” said Plese, his workout buddy. “Did you know he tied the school record today for homers in a season? He’d be too modest to mention that.”

“Steve is a strong kid,” Voss said. “He and A.J. (Plese) both are.”

Cservenyak enjoyed a big season as a junior, when he batted cleanup. He had some issues making consistent contact early this season and was dropped to eighth in the order. Now he is as dangerous as ever.

“Our lineup is kind of interesting,” Voss said. “We have back-to-back leadoff hitters 1-2 (in Cladis and Nick Ratajczak, who incidentally passed JCA assistant coach Chris Gruber as JCA’s all-time hit leader in Wednesday’s 3-2 semifinal win over Lemont). Then we have a 3-hitter (Cecchi) who is really a 2-hitter. Our 4-5 guys (Gerl and Ruzich) are there to put the ball in play to give our back-to-back leadoff men an opportunity to score runs.

“That’s more the reason we moved Steve (Cservenyak) down. But now his contact is much better than it was. He’s seeing the ball better. To be honest, I think things turned for him with the better weather.”

Senior right-hander Vinnie Hughes pitched the sixth inning in relief of Paluch. Cservenyak, the right-fielder for the first six innings, warmed in the bullpen beyond the left-field fence when the Hilltoppers came to bat in the sixth.

With Illiana ace Kevin Lasowski, who pitched most of Thursday’s 2-1 semifinal win over Oak Forest, on in relief, the first two Hilltoppers reached and the next two were retired.

Cservenyak was next. He had hustled in from the bullpen and went to a 2-1 count before flying out to deep center field, missing a three-run homer by a few feet. In fact, Illiana’s Jent Botterman bounced off the fence as he made the catch.

“It was kind of hectic, running back and forth between the bench and bullpen that inning and then getting up there to hit,” said Cservenyak, who indeed capped his whirlwind day by pitching a scoreless seventh inning. “What happened on that one was I jammed myself.”

Jammed, and he still hit the ball about 375 feet.

Could it be the fifth-inning moon shot did travel about 490?