Tigers claim school’s 1st state title
MICHAEL O’BRIEN
The bottom of the seventh inning of the Class 4A state championship game Saturday at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet featured plenty of drama.
Huntley nearly mounted a titlewinning comeback, but sophomore Eben Heine came in and retired two batters to help Plainfield North nail down a 4- 3 victory and its first state title in any team sport.
Stadium personnel accidentally set off the celebratory postgame fireworks a pitch too early. Turns out that might have been a lucky break for the Tigers.
‘‘ That kind of chilled me out,’’ Heine said. ‘‘ It gave me a breather because everyone stopped talking and just watched the fireworks. It just gave me a couple of seconds to breathe.’’
Heine struck out Huntley’s Zach Model a few seconds later to clinch the championship.
‘‘ They told me I might go in, so I was getting a little nervous,’’ Heine said. ‘‘ It was the biggest game of my life so far. It is unreal that we finally did it, and it is unreal that I am part of this as a sophomore.’’
Senior Brady Miller, the winning pitcher in the semifinals Friday, provided the key blast. He hit the only home run of the state tournament in the sixth. The solo shot to right- center turned out to be the winning margin.
‘‘[ On Friday], my at- bats were pretty brutal,’’ Miller said. ‘‘ I wanted to come out today and help my team in any way I could. I got in a good hitter’s count at 3- 1, and I was sitting on a fastball. I got a good piece of it and drove it. I hit it pretty well, but this field is super- deep. Anywhere else I would have had a good feeling, but here I was iffy.’’
Keegan Bates pitched the first two innings for Plainfield North ( 29- 7- 1), and Nicholas Cerrato pitched four innings to earn the victory. He allowed two runs and seven hits.
‘‘ I still believe baseball is the hardest [ state title] to win,’’ Plainfield North coach John Darlington said. ‘‘ Now you have the pitch counts. It would have been great to bring Brady in there at the end, but that wasn’t an option.’’
Cameron Kissel was 2- for- 3 with a run scored and Sean Tillmon 1- for- 2 with a run scored for the Tigers.
Huntley ( 33- 7) scored a run in the third and two in the seventh but could have had much more. The Red Raiders stranded 10 runners, at least one in every inning.
‘‘ It means a lot [ to win the school’s first state title],’’ Miller said. ‘‘ I was on the football team [ in 2016], and we fell short. And two years ago on the baseball team, we fell short. So it took three tries, but it feels good to finally get one my senior year. This is what you dream of as a kid, playing in the state championship game and helping your team win.’’
St. Ignatius lost to downstate Morton 4- 1 in the Class 3A title game.
‘‘ It is heartbreaking to come up this short,’’ Wolfpack senior Will McManaman said. But he also saw the silver lining. ‘‘ There are going to be a lot of kids that want to come here for baseball now,’’ McManaman said. ‘‘ It will make the program better in the future.’’
It’s the second state baseball title for the Potters, who also won in 1984. Logan Peterson allowed one run and six hits in six innings and was 1- for- 3 with an RBI.