Providence ready for 4A semis

Updated: June 9, 2011 7:20PM

An attempt to talk with senior third baseman Sam Travis, a 40th-round selection of the Cincinnati Reds in this week’s major league baseball amateur free-agent draft, about his gaudy statistics and another of his long home runs brought this response:

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard to help get us going.”

Ask senior right fielder Dominic Olszta about being the ultimate small-ball player in a tight sectional semifinal victory, then delivering a three-run triple in a nine-run first inning in the supersectional, and he says, “Whatever I can do to help the team win.”

Cliches, perhaps, but the words of Travis and Olszta define this Providence baseball team. On a club that easily could be loaded with egos, the Celtics live team baseball.

Winning team baseball.

And now, they are on the ultimate stage, the first Celtics team to qualify for a state baseball tournament since 1995.

Providence (36-3) will meet Prospect (26-8) in a Class 4A semifinal at 3 p.m. today at Silver Cross Field in Joliet. Mount Carmel (34-7-1) will battle Lyons (35-4) at 5 p.m. in the other semifinal.

Third-place and championship games are Saturday.

Providence began the playoffs with three games where the offense was in a bit of a funk, scoring six, three and five runs, respectively. But the Celtics’ potent bats came alive in the Neuqua Valley Sectional final, a 12-3 victory over Downers Grove South, and kept cooking with a nine-run first inning in a 13-3 victory over Edwardsville in Monday’s University of Illinois Supersectional.

But even when they were hitting below normal standards in the first three postseason games, the Celtics found ways to provide adequate support for the 1-2 pitching punch of senior left-hander Matt Trowbridge (8-0, 1.76 ERA) and senior right-hander Brandon Maggalones (8-2, 2.48).

Trowbridge is scheduled to start today.

Providence is hitting .385 as a team and averaging almost nine runs per game. Travis, batting in the 3-hole, is hitting .504 with 15 home runs and 72 RBI. Senior catcher Dan Potempa follows him in the order and is at .482 with nine homers and 45 RBI.

As impressive as the Travis-Potempa duo has been, however, the Celtics are blessed with other weapons — an endless stream of high batting averages and on-base percentages combined with the ability to execute, play small ball and use their team speed on the bases.

Providence, which has won 18 straight games, last lost 12-11 to Brother Rice on May 4. The Celtics’ other setbacks were 8-5 to St. Laurence and 10-3 to St. Rita.

The pitching staff, backed by a defense that had been outstanding before a two-inning collapse during the supersectional, has allowed 21/2 runs per game during the 18-game winning streak.

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