Tough test awaits Westminster Christian

Updated: May 24, 2011 6:13PM

Fresh off its fourth regional title in five years, the task for Westminster Christian’s baseball team gets decidedly tougher this week.

The Warriors open play in the Lisle Class 2A Sectional with a semifinal showdown against Walther Lutheran at 6:30 Wednesday. The game will take place at Benedictine University, site of Westminster’s supersectional win last year during its run to the Class 1A state title.

Duplicating last year’s success in Lisle won’t be easy, though, as the Warriors will run into teams with similar levels of talent. Westminster (25-7) barely edged Walther Lutheran (14-14) earlier this season, and the Warriors lost in April to sectional favorite Aurora Christian (28-6), which takes on Latin in theday other semifinal.

“We’re going to have to keep rolling, but it only gets tougher,” Westminster senior Andrew Mason said. “We’ve got to keep proving all the guys wrong that say we can’t compete with the bigger schools. We know we can, but we’ve just got to prove it.”

The jump from Class 1A to 2A wasn’t a problem for the Warriors last week as they rolled to their own regional title. Opponents Rickover Naval Academy and St. Edward combined for only one hit against Westminster’s junior aces Kevin Elder and Ryan Perez during the regional.

That phenomenal pitching duo gives the Warriors a legitimate shot at claiming the third sectional title in program history this week, but an offense that struggled in a 2-0 regional championship win against the Green Wave will have to produce against some formidable pitching.

The good news for Westminster is it won’t need much run support to get the job done if Perez and Elder are at the top of their games. Perez, an ambidextrous standout, is 9-1 with a 1.47 ERA and 131 strikeouts. Elder, a hard-throwing righty, is 7-2 with a 1.71 ERA and 125 strikeouts and is coming off a complete-game no-hitter against St. Edward.

“We’ve proven that whoever we play we can beat,” Elder said. “Going into the sectional we have a lot of confidence. As long as we get me or Ryan a run or two and we hopefully keep the other team from scoring, we could pull off another sectional in 2A.”

Westminster coach Jeff Moeller put together a difficult schedule for his team this year, and two of the toughest contests came against Walther Lutheran and Aurora Christian.

The Warriors edged Walther Lutheran 7-6 on April 6. The game was tied after six innings when Westminster struck for three runs in the top of the seventh. The Broncos, who last week won their sixth regional title in seven years, rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh in that contest before Elder capped a shaky complete-game effort.

Westminster wasn’t as lucky in a 9-3 loss against Aurora Christian on April 8 at Judson University. The good news for the Warriors is that the Eagles did most of their damage before Perez came in to pitch the final four innings. Elder didn’t make an appearance on the mound in that contest.

Bobby Kuntzendorf owns a 9-0 pitching record and is the undisputed leader for Aurora Christian, which is seeking its second sectional title in three years. But don’t expect Westminster to get too caught up worrying about its opponent.

“In 2007 our kids started saying ‘Play our game our way,’” Moeller said of the 2007 team that put Westminster on the map with its first trip to the State Finals. “That’s kind of a comfort to us because we know that if we execute, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

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