Nunn steps up for Marian Catholic

Updated: July 25, 2011 8:24PM

A different player has stepped up for Marian Catholic during its surprising five-game winning streak during the summer baseball playoffs.

On Monday, in first-round play of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Phil Lawler Classic, Rob Nunn, Eric Callaghan and Pat Swanson shared the spotlight against Harlem.

Nunn was super on the mound, scattering six hits in a complete-game performance, and Callaghan and Swanson drove in three runs to lead Marian Catholic to a 5-2 win at North Central College.

Marian Catholic advanced to play the winner of Monday’s St. Viator-Maine South game at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Nunn walked one and struck out three, including the final batter of the game during a tidy 83-pitch effort.

“Rob sometimes tries to throw harder than he can, but that generally happens when we’re not playing good defense behind him,” said Marian Catholic coach Phil Wail, whose team didn’t commit an error. “He was throwing strikes, getting ahead of hitters and we played good defense today. That’s his game.”

The Spartans (16-9) recorded just two hits on the day, but they were timely.

Marian’s first hit didn’t come until two outs in the fifth, but that double by Callaghan drove in two and erased a 1-0 deficit. Chris Molyneaux and Jake McCabe coaxed two-out walks to keep the inning alive before Callaghan, a junior shortstop, knocked them in, first working the count to 2-and-1, then hammering a fastball over the center fielder’s head.

“Callaghan came through with a huge hit,” Wail said of his No. 9 hitter.

The Spartans looked to have tacked on another run in the inning when Rob Cifelli lined a shot that left fielder Sean Berthiume misplayed for an error, allowing Callaghan to cross the plate. Instead, Cifelli was called out for missing first base, negating the run.

Marian Catholic added another run in the sixth, compliments of a two-out error by Harlem.

With two on and two outs, Kyle Fitzgerald hit a routine popup that third baseman Martin Rodriguez dropped for an error. Brad Bohlen scored all the way from second base on the miscue for a 3-1 advantage.

The Spartans put the game away with two more runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Swanson and a throwing error by Harlem.

“When the game first started, I was extremely nervous,” said Nunn, a Crete resident. “But this has just been crazy. We’ve just been having so much fun.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.