Nazareth comes back to top Spartans

Updated: June 6, 2011 9:41PM

Burdened by two consecutive losses in the North Central College Class 3A Supersectional, Nazareth was on the road to extending its dubious streak to three years on Monday against a surprising St. Francis squad.

But the heavily-favored Roadrunners rallied from a four-run deficit, scoring five unanswered runs to finally punch its ticket to the Class 3A state finals with a 5-4 victory before a packed house in Naperville.

“This is definitely a big weight off our backs,” said senior shortstop Michael Barajas, who delivered the momentum-turning, two-run triple in the fifth inning. “We’ve worked really hard to get here, but we couldn’t seem to get over the hump. But the last two years gave us more experience and it really paid off in the end.”

Nazareth (34-5), which won the IHSBCA summer state championship last July, now advances to its first state semifinals at Silver Cross Field in Joliet on Friday.

It certainly didn’t look good for the Roadrunners early in this contest. St. Francis (25-13) scored three runs on five hits in the third inning to extend its advantage to 4-0. Compounding matters for Nazareth was St. Francis had its left-handed ace, Eric Stout (10-3), on the mound. And Stout had made quick work of the Roadrunners through three innings.

But Nazareth finally broke through on the fourth thanks to two walks and an error, which resulted in an unearned run. Then the Roadrunners tied the game in the fifth with three runs. A hit batsmen and an infield single put runners on first and second for Barajas, a Lewis University recruit who ripped a two-run triple to left-center field. Barajas scored the following batter when senior third baseman Anthony Baldassano executed a suicide squeeze.

Senior centerfielder Kane Lombardo, who finished 2-for-4, drove in Patrick Kelly for the game-winning single in the sixth inning.

“That’s where our experience comes in,” said senior right-handed pitcher Ryan Powers, who went 2-for-3 with a walk. “Basically we knew what we had to do to win the game.”

Powers, a hard-throwing 6-foot-5, 210-pound Miami (Ohio) recruit, pitched the final 1 1/3 of hitless relief after he earned the sectional final victory on Saturday. Kelly, a Grand Valley State recruit, started the game for the Roadrunners before giving way to junior left-hander Dominic Purpura with two outs and the bases loaded in the third inning. St. Francis led 4-0.

Purpura got out of the third-inning jam, and proceeded to pitch three innings of shutout relief, allowing one hit, to earn the victory. In a game that labored along, Powers came in and quickly dispatched the Spartans in short order.

“In the summer we got a taste of winning,” said Powers. “I just hope we’re not done winning.”

Stout, a Butler University recruit, threw a five-hitter at the Roadrunners, allowing three earned runs with six strikeouts, four walks and three hit batsmen. Stout also went 2-for-4 at the plate. Preston Preusser added two hits for St. Francis.

“Baseball is a game of inches, and I felt like we were right there,” said St. Francis coach Rich Janor. “Nazareth was real resilient. They battled back.”

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