Watts, Watseka bring down Eagles

David Zielke of Aurora Christian walks off the field after being picked off by Watseka.
(Jon Cunningham/For the Beacon News)

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The greatest season in Aurora Christian baseball history came to an end Monday in the Class 2A Benedictine University Supersectional as the Watseka Warriors took advantage of timely hitting and a career-best pitching performance from Drew Watts to win 9-3 and advance to the state finals this weekend.

"We had a great season with nothing to be ashamed of," Eagles coach Andy Zorger said. "We hadn't even won a regional let alone a sectional. We'll remember putting it together at the end and it doesn't take away from our season at all."

The Warriors (24-5) scored four runs with two outs in the pivotal second inning, as it proved to be enough to win. Spencer Harris hit a soft liner into left and challenged the Aurora Christian defense by running hard to second. Eagles shortstop Matt Morse bobbled the relay throw and Harris slid into second safely.

Tanner Harris followed by coaxing a walk out of ACS starter David Zielke (7-2), and as catcher Jake Hanson leisurely retrieved the loose ball, Spencer Harris stole third. John Braden and Sawyer Harris followed with run-scoring singles to make it 2-0. Dylan Defauw then drove in two with a triple.

"Pitching against this team ... I've never seen a team like this before," Zielke said. "I'd throw balls in the dirt and all over the zone and they'd still touch 'em. They're a great team. We kept (our emotions) set this entire game. There was nothing you could really do about it."

In the bottom of the second, the Eagles' Nate Hill tried the same aggressive play in turning for second after a single to left, only he was pegged by Warriors left fielder Devin Regnier.

An Eagles scoring chance was then nullified in the bottom of the third when a wild pitch by Watts hit the back wall and bounced right back to catcher Brede Parker, who threw Zielke out at third after he strayed too far from the bag.

After the Warriors pushed their lead to 8-0 in the fourth, ACS (25-11) finally got on the board in the bottom of the frame after Watts lost his feel for the strike zone. Back-to-back walks to Morse and Ubert set up a run-scoring single by Mitch Holtz and a sacrifice fly by Eric Andersen.

The fifth inning would prove to be the Eagles' greatest chance to get back in the game, as they loaded the bases with just one out. Andru Ubert drew a walk to make it 9-3, but Wall ended the threat by striking out Holtz and Nate Hill.

Aurora Christian threatened again in the sixth after getting two men on with one out, but Wall got Hanson to foul out and struck out Clancy.

"We just couldn't get a big two-out hit to chip away," Zorger said. "It's like we were on the brink all night and we just couldn't quite break through."

Watts struck out a career-high 14.

"When he takes the mound, our team knows he's going to hold good teams to three (runs) or less," Watseka coach Darin Hartman said. "All it does is snowball when he's on the mound because they know he's going to handcuff teams."