Providence captures WJOL tourney crown

Photos: Providence vs. Joliet Catholic

After Saturday's 4-3 semifinal victory over Lockport, Joliet Catholic baseball coach Jared Voss joked about the type of weather he had ordered for Saturday night's championship game.

"I normally don't like it cold, but if I hope it's 10 degrees tonight," Voss said.

The reason Voss wanted chilly conditions was the youthful Hilltoppers' opponent in the finale of the sixth annual WJOL Area Baseball Invite at Silver Cross Field – none other than old rival Providence, the No. 1-ranked team in the state.

The Celtics are loaded with offensive firepower, all right, and Voss figured a deep freeze may cut down on their effectiveness at the plate. But they also have a deep pitching staff that is second to none. In fact, eight members of the Providence roster are headed to NCAA Division I schools, two to Division II and two to Division III.

The man on the hill for the championship game was senior right-hander Dan Wetzel. He was touched for two second-inning runs but otherwise was in control, helping the Celtics to a thrilling 4-3 victory and their second WJOL title. They join Minooka as the only two-time tournament champions. The Indians entered the weekend as the two-time defending champion.

None of it happened, however, until a heart-stopping, gut-wrenching seventh inning unfolded.

Joliet Catholic drew first blood with the two-run second. Chris Tschida walked with one out and Matt Wolz dropped a single in short center field. Luke Swanson singled to right-center field to knock in one run, and Ryan Peter followed with a sacrifice fly to center.

Hilltoppers junior right-hander Chris Blatti negotiated the bottom of the second with the help of an infield double play, but the Celtics took the lead with a 3-spot in the bottom of the third.

Matt Trowbridge started the uprising with a hard shot to second that went through for an error. Kevin DeFilippis doubled, hero-in-the-making Brady Wilkin singled in two to tie it and Sam Travis unloaded a triple to right-center field to put Providence up 3-2.

Blatti, though, responded, getting the next three hitters and stranding Travis at third.

The Hilltoppers did not threaten seriously through the middle innings. But sophomore catcher Alex Voitik, the cleanup hitter, led off the sixth with his second single of the game and fifth of the day. He was sacrificed to second and moved up to third on a groundout, but Wetzel pitched out of trouble.

Joliet Catholic threatened again in the seventh, putting men on first and third on a single and an error by center fielder Wilkin with two outs. Left-hander Collin McEnery relieved to face Hilltoppers No. 3 hitter Kyle Cunningham, who hit a two-run walkoff homer to beat Plainfield South in the quarterfinals, and he ripped a single to right to knock in the tying run.

Voitik then walked to fill the bases, and second baseman DeFilippis saved the day, diving to his left for Tschida's ground ball in the hole and throwing him out at first.

Providence pinch-hitter Kenny King walked to open the bottom of the seventh, Trowbridge sacrificed, and after a wild pitch, DeFilippis was walked intentionally. That brought up Wilkin, who lined the game-winning single to right.

Talk about making amends.

Wetzel struck out six, walked one and allowed six hits in 6 2/3 innings. Blatti went the distance, yielding six hits with three strikeouts and three walks.

Without a doubt, it was a championship game that lived up to the billing.

Lemont 7, Lockport 5: The kid who pitched the tournament's first perfect game ever kept the walkoff home runs coming.

Lemont's Josh Ferry rocketed a two-run homer over the right-field fence with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Lemont a victory over Lockport in the third-place game.

The ball hit the white Grant's sign beyond the right field fence and bounced back onto the field, causing temporary confusion between the umpires as to whether it was a homer or merely a long double. The correct call finally was made, and the University of Illinois-bound Ferry had ended it.

"I was just trying to keep my shoulder down," he said. "I wasn't trying to hit a home run."

Ferry, a switch-hitter, finished the game with three hits and the tournament with six, in addition to throwing the perfect game against Minooka.

"It was weird waiting to see what they were going to call, but I knew the ball hit the white," Ferry said of the discussion over his towering blast. "It didn't matter, though, because Jeff (Worsech, the next hitter) would have ended it."

Ferry's homer came off Lockport senior right-hander Garret Kooi, who entered in the third inning in relief of Nick Serpico and did a good job keeping the Porters in the game.

Lockport (4-2) finally got even after scoring a run in the sixth and two in the seventh off senior right-hander Jeremy Santiago, who went the distance for Lemont (4-3). Ted Snidanko drove in the first run in the seventh with a single and John Kosmowski knocked in the tying run when his fly ball to center was lost in the lights and fell for a single.

"I can't say enough about what Jeremy Santiago did," Lemont coach Joe Rodeghero said. "He didn't have his curve the first three innings – he was a one-pitch pitcher – and then he found it in the middle innings.

"He got a win against a good Lockport team. We have lost to all very good teams this year, and we got into this tournament to show the Joliet area that we are pretty good, too."

"They have great team," Lockport coach Andy Satunas said of Lemont. "They have bats, speed, they're talented. We did battle but unfortunately they outcoached us on a couple first-and-third situations. Then we get even at the end – there you go."

Matt Skrzypiec had three of Lockport's nine hits. Snidanko and Kosmowski added two each.

Trevor Murphy had two of Lemont's 10 hits, including an RBI double.

Plainfield South 11, Minooka 10: Brett Ritter had gotten himself in coach Phil Bodine's dog house for missing signs during the tournament.

But when the chips were down, he lifted Plainfield South to the consolation championship.

Ritter cracked a walkoff single through the hole at shortstop to score Darrell Collins and give the Cougars a wild and crazy win over Southwest Prairie Conference adversary Minooka.

South (3-2) led 10-3 at one time but Minooka scored five runs in the top of the fifth and two in the sixth to draw even in what became a six-inning game because of the two-hour time limit.

Ritter's heroics, however, never would have been possible without Collins' speed and daring. After he singled, he tagged and went to second on a pop foul to the catcher. Then on Ritter's hit, he barely slid home ahead of left fielder Dan Fox's perfect throw.

"It was rough day today," Bodine said. "I'm disappointed we weren't able to put people away in the tournament. But it's a lot of fun.

"Ritter missed some signs earlier, but it was good to see he picked himself up."

Collins tripled and singled, Eddie Nelson tripled, Jake Roberts singled and doubled and John McNulty doubled and knocked in two runs for South. Nick White went 2-for-3 with two RBI and Dakota Brown singled and doubled for Minooka (5-2).

"We showed heart coming back like we did," Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. "It was disheartening to lose on the time limit, but the bottom line is they were one run better than us today."

Petrovic had been concerned with the Indians' offense earlier in the tournament – they were the victims the six-inning, 60-pitch perfect game by Lemont's Josh Ferry in the quarterfinals and beat Plainfield Central 2-1 in the consolation semifinals.

"We hit some balls hard in this game," Petrovic said, "and I liked our approach. We took some pitches. You couldn't walk us earlier in the week.

Plainfield Central 14, Joliet Central 0: Plainfield Central played two tournament opponents tough heading into its game at Silver Cross Field.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats had come up short against Providence and Minooka and, in fact, were winless for the season.

But with J.D. Heirs pitching a one-hitter, coach Bob Dobbertin's team ended the skid in style, blanking Joliet Central.

Joe Sparacio was the big gun for Plainfield Central (1-5). He walloped a grand slam in an eight-run third inning and tripled home a run in the fourth.

It was a disappointing finish to the tournament for Joliet Central, which had given Lockport and Plainfield South all they could handle in previous rounds.

"We walked 12 batters and hit three," Steelmen coach Tony Juarez said. "We got two pretty well pitched games the first two games, but we have to find a third pitcher."

Nico Burzawa's fifth-inning single was the only hit for the Steelmen.

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