By Drake Skleba

JOLIET – No. 4 Joliet Catholic vs. No. 6 Providence for all the marbles of the 7^th WJOL Area Invite. Not quite. The two state-ranked powers were surprised by upstarts Minooka and Lemont in the semifinals Saturday afternoon, and met for third place at Silver Cross Field Saturday night.

Providence Catholic (6-2) defeated Joliet Catholic Academy 4-3 to take home the third place trophy. Coincidentally, the Celtics defeated the Hilltoppers by the same 4-3 score to win the 2011 WJOL Area Invite championship game.

In the early innings it was clearly evident that both squads had their hearts set on playing at 8 p.m. instead of 5:30. The game clearly lacked the normal intensity of a JCA-Providence battle.

Providence scored in the first inning when Celtic junior Nick Sanders doubled home All-Tournament selection Kenny King with two outs with the first inning. King had also doubled.

The Celtics picked up an unearned run in the third and two more in the fourth to increase their lead to 4-0. The normally sure-handed Hillltoppers struggled defensively.

JCA (4-2) battled back with a three-spot in the fifth. Seniors Nate Searing and Zach Melone had RBI singles in the inning and the third Hillltopper run was driven in on a groundout by junior Ryan Peter. Providence starting and winning pitcher Yianni Pavlopolous (2-0) bore down and pitched out of further trouble.

Providence’s new closer, senior Cristian Ochoa, retired all six of the Hilltopper hitters he faced to nail down his second save of the season for Pavlopoulos.

“Cristian has really filled in well in his new role,” said Providence head coach Mark Smith. “He was lights out this afternoon and told me he had a couple of more innings tonight.”

King had two more hits for the Celtics to finish at .600 for the tournament.

“This was a good win for us,” said King. “Hopefully we can pick things up and get on a roll after this disappointing third-place finish here. I feel real good at that plate and a lot of good things are happening for me.”

For JCA, a couple of tough losses for the 4^th place Hilltoppers.

“We lost to two quality teams today and battled to the end in both games,” said JCA head coach Jared Voss. “We’ve had a great start to the season and we will be fine.”