Walther Lutheran climb way back in win

Updated: May 30, 2011 9:01PM

Living on the edge has become a way of life for the Walther Lutheran baseball team.

The Broncos came from behind for the fourth straight playoff game Monday, scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to stun heavily-favored Herscher 9-8 in the Class 2A Benedictine University Supersectional.

Walther Lutheran (17-13), which began the season 5-10, now has pulled three consecutive upsets on the Benedictine field, having stunned Westminster Christian and Aurora Christian in sectional action.

The elimination of Herscher (31-5) was the biggest surprise yet. The Tigers led 8-2 in the fifth inning when starting pitcher Matt Webber, who came in with a 9-0 record, started to falter.

“It’s not the first time we’ve fought back this year,” Walther Lutheran coach Matt Tuomi said. “We knew it was in us, so we knew we could do it. It’s still kind of shocking when you think it actually happened, though.”

The Broncos pulled within 8-4 on a two-run double by catcher Josh Galven, but Webber fanned Shaq Cockrell to end the fifth.

But in the sixth, Walther sent 10 men to the plate. Jon Lomnicki singled and went to third on a double by Luke Barajaz. Both scored when pinch-hitter Matt Kocjancich reached on an error.

Herscher coach Eric Regez, who picked up his 500th career win on May 7, then brought in Justin Ruckman, who had pitched on Friday, in attempt to stanch the bleeding.

The first batter, Anthony Garland, reached on another error. Ruckman struck out leadoff hitter Joe Lomnicki, but Dan LoDolce doubled home a run and then Chris Stevens tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

“When we got the first two runs in, that’s when I was like, ‘Ok, this is going to be our inning,’ because the top of the lineup was coming up and they got on,” Stevens said. “I was like if they get on second and third, which they did, then we’re going to get them in. That’s what happened.”

Galven followed by hitting the first pitch he saw for a single to center to score LoDolce with the go-ahead run.

“It was the first pitch and I had to jump on it,” Galven said. “I knew it was a fastball and I just took it (up the middle).”

Stevens, who was 2-for-3 with a run scored, got his first pitching victory of the year by hurling 4 1/3 innings of two-hit relief, giving up two runs, one of which was earned. He retired 10 in a row at one point.

“We came back in almost every game (in the tournament) so I was just saying to myself if I shut them down and we keep the score the same for two or three innings, then the good part of the order will come up and start hitting and that’s what happened,” Stevens said. “We had one big inning and it just broke everything open.”

Herscher had one last chance when Wes Sproul drew a one-out walk in the seventh, but LoDolce relieved Stevens with a 1-0 count on Spike Engleman and nailed down the save, striking out Engelman and retiring Ian Powell on a pop to second.

Cockrell had given the Broncos a 2-0 lead in the first with a two-run double to left, but Herscher batted around in each of the next two innings, scoring three runs in the second and four in the third, helped in part by three walks, three hit batsmen and an error. Another error in the fourth led to another run that made it 8-2 Herscher.

Justin Ruckman was 2-for-4 with three runs batted in and Jeff Bruer was 2-for-3 with three runs and two stolen bases for the Tigers, whose troubles at Benedictine continue. The Tigers have been eliminated in supersectional games there in four of the past six seasons, including in 2007 when Walther beat them 5-4 to earn its only previous trip to state. Three of the losses have been by one run.

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