Big inning boosts Joliet Catholic

Updated: May 16, 2011 8:10PM

All was well for the Joliet Catholic baseball team Monday afternoon against visiting Marian Catholic.

The sun was shining on Gillespie Field, upbeat country music was blaring from the loud speakers between innings and most of the Hilltoppers had already batted twice after two innings while three Marian Catholic hitters had yet to reach the batter’s box.

Joliet Catholic put together a seven-run second inning that included a two-run double by Adrian Nunez and a two-run triple by Cody Columbus and rolled to a 10-0 five-inning East Suburban Catholic Conference victory.

“I give the credit to them, they just swing the bats well,’’ Marian Catholic coach Phil Wail said. “They had very good approaches at the plate. They were going to hit in their counts and hit fastballs. We did the opposite.’’

Nate Searing allowed only two singles and one walk with four strikeouts for Joliet Catholic (19-8, 11-4).

“The guys played good behind me and I threw strikes,’’ Searing said. “It was good to get those 10 runs though.”

Searing was a reliever earlier in the season and Joliet Catholic coach Jared Voss said Searing asked to be a starter.

“Nate has really been coming into his own as a starter,’’ Voss said. “He’s been doing a great job. He hammers the strike zone, he hits his spots. It gives us another good option heading into the playoffs.’’

Searing also scored two runs, one after a leadoff single in the first and then in the second after being hit by a pitch.

“The hit and runs, we were opening up gaps,’’ Searing said. “We were just hitting the ball, putting it in play, and it worked out for us.’’

Ryan Peter, Alex Voitik and Chris Tschida (3-for-3, two RBI) had RBI singles in the second inning.

“We had a lot of confidence going into the game,’’ Tschida said. “We felt really good hitting today. We’ve been hitting pretty well lately.’’

Voss said he put on a couple hit-and-runs to get the offense going on a windy day.

“We got some guys on base and the kids did an awesome job executing,’’ Voss said. “It was nice to see the kids execute and put up 10 on a tough offensive day.’’

It was definitely a tough offensive day for Marian Catholic (16-16, 5-10).

“When they’re falling, they’re falling,’’ Wail said. “And when they’re not, everything goes wrong. But when you have a good team like that, it’s not by accident that things work well for them.’’

The ESCC finale for both teams is a Wednesday rematch at Marian Catholic.

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