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Providence powers way to title
Updated: June 4, 2011 8:41PM
The Providence baseball team, an offensive juggernaut for most of the regular season, had been more of a sleeping giant through the first three games of the postseason.
You had the feeling an explosion was imminent.
Senior third baseman Sam Travis began the onslaught with a long first-inning home run and the Celtics pounded out 15 hits Saturday morning in a 12-3 victory over Downers Grove South in the championship game of the Class 4A Neuqua Valley Sectional.
The reward for Providence (35-3) is a supersectional date against Edwardsville at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The winner will advance to the state semifinals Friday at Silver Cross Field.
“I just tried to hit the ball hard and get us scoring some runs for Matt (Trowbridge),” said Travis, who is hitting a lofty .504 with 15 homers and 69 RBI.
Dan Potempa, Collin McEnery and Zak Kutsulis followed Travis’ blast with consecutive singles to stake Trowbridge, a senior left-hander, to a 2-0 lead. After Downers Grove South (25-14) tied it in the top of the third, two-run homers by Dan Potempa and Kutsulis highlighted a five-run bottom of the third and the Celtics were well on their way to Champaign.
“This team means the world to me,” said Trowbridge (8-0), who allowed three hits, struck out four and walked four in five innings. Senior left-hander McEnery shut down the Mustangs over the final two innings.
“I like hitting in our lineup, too,” added Trowbridge, who chipped in with two singles and a double in four at-bats. “Those home runs by Sammy (Travis), Dan (Potempa) and (Zak) Kutsulis were awesome. We said before the game the key for us was getting into their bullpen early, and we did.”
Downers Grove South senior right-hander Matt Wivinis will pitch at Kansas State, so he is no slouch. But he exited during the third-inning uprising, and a parade of relievers were unable to stifle the Celtics express.
Potempa, who bats cleanup behind Travis (No. 3), had a single and double in addition to his homer and drove in four runs.
Potempa is a .500 hitter with nine homers and 45 RBI.
“We’ve been battling it (offensively) a little in the tournament,” Potempa said. “But we have an amazing team. When one or two guys hit, we feed off each other.
“When we first got here today, our coaches said it was a hitter’s day. That was something we were glad to hear.”
A junior in a lineup with several senior standouts, Kutsulis, who has been playing center field, said, “It’s nice knowing I can be on the same field with these guys.”
“Zak has done a great job as a junior on a senior-dominated team,” Providence coach Mark Smith said.
Kutsulis finished 2-for-3 with three RBI. Dominic Olszta also went 2-for-3 and drove in a run, and Casy Papp chipped in with a pinch-hit double.
“We were waiting for this kind of game, although we weren’t expecting that much,” Smith said. “It was a great day to hit, and the boys were ready.
“We worked (Friday) on being aggressive offensively, and when we score a couple runs early, that builds the confidence.”
Downers Grove South’s last chance to get back into the game came in the fifth. The Mustangs had the bases loaded with one out but managed only one run to make it 7-3 as Trowbridge struck out the last two batters he would face.
“It was hot and humid, but those are things you can’t control,” Trowbridge said. “I’ve had times this season where I lost focus in certain spurts. Today I told myself I had to stay strong.”
Potempa, the Celtics’ senior catcher, said of Trowbridge, “He was fantastic today. I worked hard trying to frame pitches for him, and his walks were a lot better than what he had been doing.”
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