Failure to hit in clutch costs Carmel in loss to Prairie Ridge

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Opportunities knocked for Carmel's baseball team here Monday night.

Unfortunately, the Corsairs weren't able to answer.

As a result, Prairie Ridge from Crystal Lake wound up ending Carmel's season with a 5-4, eight-inning victory here at Alexian Field in the IHSA Class 4A Round of 8 super-sectional.

Prairie Ridge advances to the Final Four state semifinals on Friday in Joliet, and Carmel calls it a season with 32-6 record.

For the game, Carmel stranded eight runners, prompting coach Chuck Gandolfi to say, "We didn't get the big hit when we had guys on base.

"When you make it to the final eight in the state and you play extra innings, it's a fine line between the teams that advance and those that don't. They got the hit when they needed it and we didn't. We had chances all game long."

The Wolves (30-8) won the game when Nick Martini -- the team's top hitter who had been held in check up to that point -- led off the bottom of the eighth with a line triple to dead center. After two intentional walks loaded the bases and an infield grounder forced one runner out at home, sophomore Chad Ljunggren hit a fly ball to right-center that Joey Pudlo dove for but couldn't quite catch. Even if he'd made the catch, the runner on third likely would have scored after tagging up.

Carmel had chances in both the seventh and eight innings.

In the seventh, there were two runners on with one out, when Bobby Lyne took a called-third strike and Pudlo flew out to center.

In the eighth, David Venegoni had a leadoff walk. After a failed bunt attempt, Venegoni reached second base safely as he beat a throw on an infield grounder, but he over-ran the bag and was tagged out to kill the rally.

Prairie Ridge took a 4-3 lead after three innings, and Carmel tied it in the fifth on two walks, a sacrifice bunt by Bobby Lyne and an infield out.

Carmel junior starting pitcher Jeff Moree pitched well, going 4.2 innings. Sophomore Paul Poirer worked 1.1 frames and Lyne came on in the seventh and eventually took the loss.

T.J. Swank, Prairie Ridge's ace, walked 5 batters and hit 3 three others in 6.2 innings, but Carmel couldn't get the key hit when it needed it the most.