Sports
Baseball: Marian Catholic Continues Amazing Summer League Run
Marian Catholic 9, Mount Carmel 8. Four wins in as many days move the Spartans into the state quarterfinals.
Touching All the Bases: About the only thing that might be hotter than the weather right now is the Marian Catholic baseball team. The Spartans made a surprising run to the Richards Regional title, winning four games in four days to advance to the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer league state quarterfinals. The Spartans beat Mount Carmel 9-8 on Friday for the regional championship, their first title of any sorts since 1987.
The Caravan jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Spartans bounced right back, plating three runs of their own. Pat Swanson reached base on a one-out single, and Jacob Lorenz executed a perfect hit-and-run, driving the ball to short left, moving Swanson to third. Devin Pickett then avoided a double play by beating the throw at first, allowing Swanson to score. After a wild pickoff attempt to first allowed Pickett to move all the way to third, Pat Schmidt brought home Pickett with a double, and Schimidt scored on a single by Kyle Fitzgerald.
The Spartans tacked on a run in the second to make it 4-2, as Robert Cifelli scored on a Swanson single. The Spartans appeared to blow the game open as they scored five runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run home run by Erik Callaghan, to make it 9-3.
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But the Caravan roared back to make it 9-8 in the sixth inning before Chris Molyneaux came in on relief for the Spartans and shut down Mount Carmel for the last six outs, allowing just one batter to reach base.
Patch’s MVP: Chris Molyneaux, Marian Catholic. After the Caravan’s first four batters reached base and scored without an out recorded in the sixth, Molyneaux came in and allowed just a hit batsman over two innings to preserve the win.
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Marian Catholic’s Leaders: In addition to Molyneaux: Pat Swanson (3-for-4, 2 runs scored), Devin Pickett (1-for-3, RBI, 2 runs scored), and Erik Callaghan (1-for-2, homer, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored).
Quotable I: Marian Catholic coach Phil Wail: “This is a huge steppingstone for our program. The guys are starting to believe that if they come together as a team they can do some special things.”
Quotable II: Marian third basemen Devin Pickett: “This is amazing. I am so happy right now. It just goes to show you that if you work hard and hustle that good things will happen to you.”
Team Records: Marian Catholic improved to 15-9 on the summer.
What’s Next: Marian Catholic advances to the state summer quarterfinals. The Spartans will begin action on Monday at either North Central College in Naperville or Benedictine University in Lisle.
