Chargers hold off York in final

Updated: July 21, 2011 9:54PM

The game was placed on the shoulders of the relievers after the starters had locked up in a pitchers’ duel for five innings in the Fenwick Regional championship of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association state tournament Thursday in River Forest.

When the dust cleared, No. 3 seed St. Joseph finally was able to breathe a sigh of relief as it came up with a dramatic 4-3 victory over No. 13 York and will move on to play among the final eight teams for a state title starting Monday.

“We beat four good 4A teams and we’re a 3A team, so I’m really proud of these guys,” St. Joseph coach Jay Meath said. “They showed they can play with anybody, and if you have the guys who practice hard, like these guys do, and really understand the game, you develop champions. That’s what we set out to accomplish here this week and we did it – won a regional championship.”

Reliever Stephen Scatassa, who pitched seven innings in St. Joseph’s 3-2 win over Lyons a day earlier, fanned Pete Doughty to end the game with the tying run at second base after York had scored twice in the seventh inning to pull within one.

The game was tied 1-1 until the sixth when Dukes starting pitcher Louis Alcarez was replaced by River Pitlock, who threw a complete game Tuesday in a 7-0 victory over Oak Park-River Forest.

The Chargers’ Eric LeCoure (double, run) reached to start the sixth when his fly ball was dropped by right fielder Josh LoCicero (2 hits). Scatassa followed with a walk and both runners move up on a groundout to the right side of the infield by Trayvon Johnson. Mike Pagliuco was intentionally walked to load the bases, but Danny Barron struck out for the second out of the inning.

It looked as though Pitlock (2-for-3, RBI) might work out of the jam, but on a 2-and-2 pitch he plunked Andrew Doss to bring home LeCoure with the lead run. Luke Dauphenbaugh, who will be a sophomore next year, followed that with a bouncer through the middle to drive home Scatassa and Pagliuco and give the Chargers a 4-1 cushion.

York (13-18) wasn’t going to make it easy for St. Joseph (19-4), however.

With St. Joseph starter Ryan Fejt still on the mound, the seventh inning started with a controversial out call on a fly ball to left field by Mike Trumbull that was reversed and ruled a trap after a discussion between the two umpires. Fejt struck out the next batter, but Kyle Burr walked and Meath brought in Scatassa.

The right-hander walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and a ground ball up the middle by Pitlock was booted by the shortstop to bring home Trumbull and cut the Chargers’ advantage to 4-2. Jake Rzeszutko lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score Burr, but that would be all the Dukes could muster as the next batter went down on strikes to end the game.

Fejt earned the win as he went 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits while striking out one and walking one.

“I feel really great,” Fejt said. “I really wanted this one because my cousin (York first baseman Mike Trumbull) is on the other team. My cutter was working really well today, but my fastball wasn’t on, so I went to the cutter a lot as my out pitch.”

Despite temperatures in the high 90s, Fejt said he still felt strong as the game progressed.

“I blocked the heat out of my mind and only had about 70 pitches when I was taken out, so I could have gone a little more. My game plan today was to just let them hit the ball and trust my defense – and it all worked out.”

Alcarez allowed just five hits and one run in his five innings, striking out three and walking one.

The only run off Alcarez came in the third inning when St. Joseph’s Jacoree Sutton doubled just moments after Josh Paparone made a great diving catch in to rob Dauphenbaugh of a hit. Edgar Donato followed that with a deep drive to right center that eluded the right fielder. Donato tried to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park homer, but was thrown out

York coach Dave Kalal said though he was disappointed with Thursday’s loss he was impressed with the effort his squad gave during the summer tournament.

“I think we really came together as a team this past week, and that is good to see,” said Kalal, whose Dukes defeated Lincoln Park, Oak Park and Nazareth in the regional. “It showed me what a lot of these guys are capable of and gives me a much better idea of what I can expect next spring. This team didn’t play this well much of the summer and this last week showed me we have some kids who can pitch and some guys who can come up with big hits in the clutch – it’s very encouraging.”

Meath had plenty of accolades for his starter.

“My starting pitcher Ryan Fejt did a hell of a job on two days’ rest,” Meath said. “He basically shut these guys down for six innings and that’s really what we needed. He’s our No. 3 (pitcher in the rotation), but he has tremendous heart, and that’s why he got the ball today.

“Overall, our team just battled, battled and battled. They (York) made some great plays early in the game. When a team makes a couple of great plays, diving plays, whatever it might be, all of a sudden you can see your team’s level of play just drop. But we kept it up, kept at it, and in the sixth we pushed across a few – and that was huge.”

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