sduncan posted on June 14, 2009 01:25
By Drake Skleba
JOLIET - For No. 4 O’Fallon (32-10), the Panthers’ weekend in Joliet did not quite turn out to be what they hoped it would be. After being shutout on four hits Friday night by St.Rita, O’Fallon could only muster six hits against No. 6 Cary-Grove.
Fortunately, the six hits, with a little help from Cary-Grove and O’Fallon’s junior ace Miles Quintal, O’Fallon won the Class 4A third-place game, 3-2, over Cary-Grove (31-10-1) Saturday at Silver Cross Stadium.
“After last night’s disappointing loss to St.Rita, we vowed not to lose our last game of the season,” said O’Fallon coach Jason Portz. “If third place was the best we could finish then we would have to win and take home third place.”
Quintal (11-2) fired a complete-game four-hitter, allowing one earned run and striking out four. The crafty right-hander got stronger as the game went on: Quintal retired the last 13 hitters.
“The home plate umpire had a low strike zone so I kept the ball low and got a lot of ground outs,” said Quintal. “My defense was awesome all day. RF Sonnie Rollins made a great catch in the outfield for me. In the final four innings I really started to get ahead in the count and kept the ball on the corners. This was a big win for us after last night’s loss”
O’Fallon trailed 2-1 as the game entered the top of the fifth. Leadoff man Sam Summerlin walked to lead off the inning After one out Cary-Grove senior starting pitcher Matt Nelson (11-1) plunked senior Kyle Stanton. Senior catcher SIU-bound Nick Tindall hit a groundball that went through the Cary-Grove 3B for a run-scoring error. Senior Nick Johnson (2-for-4) singled to left field to load the bases for sophomore DH Rob Bohnesthiehl, who hit a big sac-fly, scoring Stanton with the eventual game winner.
“I wanted to make contact with that man at third,” said Bohnestiehl. “I just got the ball in the air and got the run in.”
O’Fallon LF Brad Taake had an RBI single in the first to give the Panthers the early lead.
Cary-Grove junior SS Chris Waylock singled home the tying run in the third and scored the lead run on a Panther error.
Cary-Grove LF Eric Chandler had two hits to lead the Trojans.
“We lost two game s this weekend by identical 3-2 scores,” said Cary-Grove coach
Don Sutherland. “We were so close. We easily could have been playing for the championship tonight at 7.”