Loyola's Savarise shows big-league effort

Updated: April 25, 2011 6:24AM

Jon Savarise turned an already special afternoon into one for the scrapbook.

The Loyola junior's been coming to the South Side to watch the White Sox his whole life, in part because his father Terry works in the organization. A couple of years ago, Savarise pitched one inning at U.S. Cellular Field for an all-star game.

Monday, Savarise threw his first complete game of the season to lead Loyola to a 4-2 win over Fenwick as the temperature never got warmer than 34 degrees. He struck out six and allowed five hits.

The Friars had the tying run at second base in the bottom of the seventh, but the left-hander induced a ground ball on his 125th pitch to end the game.

"It felt like I only threw 50 pitches because the adrenaline was going," he said. "I started to get ahead of hitters toward the end, even though my arm was getting tired. I just kept it going."

Ramblers coach Bill San Hamel didn't juggle his staff to do Savarise any favors. Monday happened to be his turn in the rotation.

"This was a huge game for us," said the coach, whose team won for the third time in four games to improve to 4-8. More importantly, Loyola now is 3-0 in the CCL. "For Jon, it's great, too. I was glad he was able to finish. It was his game to win, and we wanted that for him."

Down 2-0, Loyola struck for three in the fourth to take the lead. Savarise's two-out double to the left-center wall tied the game. Logan Spurlin then drove home the go-ahead run with a single. The junior catcher finished with two hits.

Danny Rafferty added the insurance run with his RBI double in the fifth.

"It felt good to be out there, especially getting that hit," Savarise said. "That helped keep the inning alive and gave us the momentum."

The Friars fell to 5-8 with the loss. They scored both runs in the third, one on a passed ball and the other on Joe Patzelt's run-scoring fielder's choice.

Tyler Sewall pitched all seven. He didn't get much assistance from an offense that finished with five hits and a defense that made three errors.

Still, Sewall was thrilled for the opportunity to play at a big-league park.

"It was amazing. A dream come true," he said. "It was just as good as I thought it would be."

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