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Walther keeps rolling with another upset
Updated: May 30, 2011 8:54PM
Walther Lutheran, a surprise winner in the semifinal over Westminster Christian, upset Aurora Christian 5-4 with just four hits — all for extra bases and three being solo home runs — in the Class 2A Lisle Sectional championship game.
Aurora Christian ace left-hander Bobby Kuntzendorf entered the game with a 9-0 record a sub-1.00 ERA. All year, the junior had given up just three extra-base hits and allowed only one home run.
Kuntzendorf came out strong in the top of the first inning, getting two strikeouts and an easy groundout.
But the first batter he faced in the second — Broncos’ catcher Josh Galvan — took a fastball out to left center for a 1-0 lead.
“We didn’t know what to expect coming in with him,” said Walther coach Matt Tuomi, whose team lost 10-7 in the regular season to the Eagles. “Maybe people look at our record and it’s not that good, but we knew we played in a competitive Suburban Christian Conference and we’ve lost a ton of one-run games this year. We’d been on that proverbial hump and we thought we were getting closer and closer and closer.”
In the third, nine-hole hitter Anthony Garland doubled to left for Walther (16-13), was sacrificed to third and came home on Dan Lodolce’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
“I did all I could to come out prepared, but I guess I just didn’t have it today,” Kuntzendorf said. “We gave it all we had. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”
The Eagles (29-7) took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning with a walk, singles by Jake Hanson and Josh Haugen and a Walther error. The big blow was a two-run single to right by Kenny McCracken with the bases loaded and two outs.
Kuntzendorf threw two scoreless innings, but had to work around a pair of walks and a hit batter. The Eagles gave him a two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth when Brent Minta’s double to left scored Haugen.
Broncos’ shortstop Chris Stevens led off the top of the sixth with an opposite field solo home run over the high fence in right .and then two straight walks and a wild pitch put runners on second and third with no outs.
Kuntzendorf induced a pop up to himself, struck out pinch-hitter Ryan Adolfson and then struck out pinch-hitter Abdiel Armenta, but the ball glanced out of Hanson’s catcher’s mitt and away from the plate, allowing the runner on third to score the tying run and Armenta to reach first. Kuntzendorf then recorded his fourth out of the inning by striking out Garland.
Kuntzendorf took to the mound again in the seventh and recorded his 11th strikeout of the game, but Lodolce answered by taking a fastball over the left field wall for the game-winning run.
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