By Drake Skleba

 

CHICAGO ? After blasting eight home runs in a 20-3 nonconference victory over No. 2 Plainfield North on Friday, No. 4 Providence had an off day at Haggerty Field against No. 5 Mt. Carmel. The Celtics could only hit four home runs out of Haggerty Field, but that was enough to lead the Celtics to a 13-3, five-inning rout of the Caravan in a crucial Catholic League Blue Division contest.

 

Providence (21-3; 9-3) struck quickly against Mt. Carmel junior lefty Frank Kelly (4-1). Celtic second baseman Kevin DeFilippis (2-for-3, BB, 4R, SB) and shortstop

Joe Houlihan walked to set the table for Indiana University-bound Sam Travis.

Travis hammered his 11^th home run of the season to give the Celtics a quick 3-0 lead.

 

?It was good to get us ahead early,? said Travis. ?Mags (Magallones) pitched well for us. We need him to pitch that way for us. It should be a great game on Monday.?

 

Leading off the second inning, Celtic junior CF Zak Kutsulis (2-for-2; HR, SF, 2RBI), launched his second home run of the season for a 4-0 Celtic lead.

 

?I had a good day at the plate today,? said Kutsulis. ?I had a bad swing on the sac-fly but much better swings on the homer and single.?

 

Celtic C Dan Potempa (2-for-3, BB, HR, 4RBI) and senior 1B Collin McEnery (2-for-3, BB, RBI) had RBI singles to give the Celtics a 6-0 lead after two innings.

 

In the third inning the Celtics added a pair on a sac-fly from Kutsulis and a wild pitch

 

Mt. Carmel (22-4; 10-3) broke through for a run against Providence starting and winning RHP Brandon Magallones (3-2). The Caravan picked up the unearned run on a groundout from senior C Dan Pappas.

 

The Celtics put this one away with a five-run fifth, highlighted by a pair of homers from Central Michigan-bound RF Matt Trowbridge, a solo shot, and a three-run bomb from Potempa. The solo-shot was Trowbridge?s second of the season. Potempa?s bomb was his fifth.

 

?I feel the Plainfield North game helped us yesterday,? said Trowbridge. ?Yesterday we were the hunter, with North being undefeated. I think it carried over today for us. We really hit the ball and Mags was outstanding on the mound for us.?

 

Potempa gets a purple heart for the way he handled the job behind the plate. Twice in the game, the Celtic receiver took foul balls off his body and another time a Caravan batter ran into him.

 

?We brought the big bats again today,? said Potempa, ?Mags (Magallones) was outstanding for us today. He battled with some control problem but finished up strong. I changed bats recently and it has really worked for me. This was great to get this win on the road.?

 

Mt. Carmel picked up two runs in the fifth, on an RBI single from University of Kentucky-bound LF Jeff Boehm (1-for-3, RBI) and scored its third run on a wild pitch. Magallones (5 IP, 3R, 6H, 2ER, 8K, 4BB) ended the game with a flourish, picking up his eighth strikeout of the game to close it out.

 

?I threw pretty well for the most part,? said Magallones. ?It was nice to get the early lead on Sam?s bomb. My changeup was very effective today. Most of my strikeouts came on that pitch.?

 

Mt. Carmel?s junior 1B Sam Kint had a perfect day at the plate with three hits, including a double.

 

The two teams will meet again on Monday at Tom Dedin Field in New Lenox at 4:30. The beat goes on in the Catholic League Blue.

 

?I feel we can?t afford to lose any of our remaining games,? said Providence head coach Mark Smith. ?To win here at Mt. Carmel was huge. It was our first road win in the Blue. Today was more vintage Brandon (Magallones).?