Joliet Catholic walks off with win

Call it the storybook ending Joliet Catholic catcher Alex Voitik was looking for.

After teammate Adam Collins tied Wednesday night’s game with a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh against Lincoln-Way East, the junior catcher stepped to the plate with a chance to end it all.

That’s just what he did.

On the first pitch he saw from East pitcher Evan Sandmann, Voitik laid into a fastball, hitting an opposite-field walk-off home run to give Joliet Catholic a 6-5 win in a Sandburg Regional semifinal of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association playoffs.

Wednesday’s semifinal was played at Lincoln-Way East starting at 8 p.m. because District 210 policy did not allow the Griffins to play in a climate above a certain heat index.

Playing on their home field as the visitors, the Griffins raced to a 4-0 lead through two innings and held a 5-1 advantage through three. Joliet Catholic (13-0-1) slowly started chipping away, drawing to within a single run in the bottom of the fifth. Nate Searing scored from second on a Griffins fielding error, with Chris Tschida’s
RBI double scoring Ryan Peter to make the score 5-4.

Down to their last three outs though in the seventh and needing a run, the Hillmen got it from Collins. The senior drilled a pitch over the center-field fence to tie the game at 5. After hitting a solo home run Tuesday against Sandburg, Voitik continued his hot hitting, giving his team the walk-off win and the berth in Thursday’s regional title game.

“You just have to get through your head that it’s a clutch situation, and that’s all it is,” a still-out-of-breath Voitik said after his trot around the bases. “I was freaking out in my head like everyone else was, but you’ve got to stay calm on the outside and good things will happen.”

Joliet Catholic had been handcuffed heading into the seventh by East starter Brandon Bollman, scoring four runs but doing so on just three hits and three walks.

For the Hillmen, reliever Sam Couch kept his team alive, coming into the game in the third inning. The junior threw five shutout innings, giving up no hits and two walks while striking out six.

Tschida finished 2-for-2 with a run and two RBI for Joliet Catholic as the only player with more than one hit. Bobby Kosola (1-for-2, 2 runs), Dylan Pinto (RBI) and Sandmann (RBI, two singles) all contributed for the Griffins.

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