Nazareth Powers past Riverside-Brookfield

Updated: June 4, 2011 8:33PM

Nazareth needed the arm and the bat of senior hurler Ryan Powers to sneak by Riverside-Brookfield 4-3 and advance to the North Central supersectional.

Riverside-Brookfield (25-13) rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh inning, but it wasn’t enough to prevent host Nazareth (33-5) from winning the Class 3A sectional championship Saturday in LaGrange Park.

Powers smacked a home run and a double and pitched 6 2/3 innings to pick up the victory while teammate Pat Kelly recorded the last two outs for the save.

“This kid Powers stepped up real big, not only on the mound but at the plate,” said Nazareth assistant coach John Sime. “He got us going. The kid’s a stud. He was the same thing in basketball. He’s one heck of an athlete and he was the key today.”

It appeared No. 1-seeded Nazareth would coast to victory after it scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to go ahead 4-0.

Powers doubled to lead off the frame and after a walk to catcher Justin Gonzalez and a ground out that advanced the runners to second and third, courtesy runner Marc Perrone scored after a line drive single to left off the bat of left fielder Rob Petrak. Kelly, who started the game in right field, followed with a sacrifice fly to right to give the Roadrunners a four-run cushion as the game headed to the seventh.

Powers, who homered on the first pitch he saw from Bulldogs starter David Tortorici (complete game, 4 hits, 3 ER, 3 strikeouts 2 walks) allowed only a single off the bat of R-B’s David Skowronski in the fifth through his first five innings of work. Prior to that, the only runner to reach off Powers (5 strikeouts, 5 hits) was Bulldogs leadoff man Charlie Morrissey, who walked on four pitches to start the game but was erased on a double play. Powers then proceeded to retire the next 14 straight Bulldog hitters.

But the No. 3 Bulldogs would not go down without a fight.

Senior shortstop Vito DeRango singled to left field to start the seventh. Senior Tyler Radek followed that with a liner to right to put runners on first and second with no outs. C.J. Duffek swung and missed at a pitch in the dirt for a strikeout, but the ball got past the catcher, who made a bad throw to first that allowed Derango to score the Bulldogs’ first run and Duffek to reach base.

Senior T.J. Bongiorno grounded out to second to drive in Radek and cut the deficit to 4-2. With just one out, junior second baseman Andy Suzuki drove Powers first pitch deep to left center, striking the bottom of the fence and just missing leaving the ballpark for a game-tying homer. Duffek came home on the double and R-B had the tying run on second.

That would be the last batter Powers (6-1) would face as Kelly came on to try and put an end to the Bulldogs rally. He retired the final two R-B hitters (strikeout and ground out to second) to record the save and send his team to the super-sectionals Monday in Naperville.

Powers said he was glad his teammates continued swinging in the later innings, putting an unearned run on the board in the fifth before the sixth-inning rally.

“Of course, going into the last inning you don’t want to just lay down and not score any more runs,” the 6-foot-5 right-hander said. “Those insurance runs really helped. We thought we were going to have more than enough runs and R-B came out the third time around (the batting order) and really started hitting me pretty hard. We then got in a bit of a hole and had a little pressure on us – something we really haven’t faced this year – and, fortunately, we were able to come out on top.”

Sime agreed that the two late-inning runs proved much more important that expected.

“At the time, you didn’t think they (runs) were going to be big, but they wound up being huge,” he said. “Then P.K. (Kelly) came in and did a superb job.

“They (R-B) are a very good team,” Sime added. “They got past St. Joe (5-4 in the semifinal), which I thought was very impressive. We played them earlier in the year and won 5-2 back in the cold, but these guys are good and very well-coached.”

Powers acknowledged he got the pitch he was looking for when he lost it in the woods beyond the power alley in left field in the second inning.

“I was looking first-pitch fastball and if it was there I was going to jump on it – and it was and I was able to get some god wood on it and it left the park,” he said. “It gave us a little early momentum and the lead, so that was good.”

Powers also admitted fatigue kicked in during the later innings on a day when temperatures were in the mid-80s even in the morning hours when the game started.

“The first guy, the adrenaline kick in and I was overthrowing and walked him on four pitches,” Powers said. “But I calmed myself down and remembered that I have some of the best fielders in the state behind me, so let them do the work.

“I started pitching a little more calmly then, throwing strikes, and I was really feeling it. Then I think I started to get a little bit tired in the last couple innings and started hanging my off-speed pitches and wasn’t throwing as hard. But Pat Kelly was able to pick me up and finish off this game. It was a great overall team win.”

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