Bishop McNamara’s Jacob Lotz, Preston Payne combine to blank Central in regional semifinals

HERSCHER – There were a handful of times throughout Thursday’s IHSA Class 2A Herscher Regional semifinal between Bishop McNamara and Central where Fightin’ Irish pitchers Jacob Lotz and Preston Payne bent.

But they never broke.

Lotz and Payne combined to toss a six-hit shutout of the Comets and send the Fightin’ Irish (25-7) into Saturday’s regional championship game, 4-0. The Comets (12-10) got at least one runner in scoring position in five different innings, and their own ace, Blake Chandler, found a groove that he never left in the third inning, but the Irish found a way to take a three-run lead through a pair of innings and never looked back.

“It was really fun,” Lotz said. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, but we just competed and worked through it. We got a couple runs early that obviously helped, then just tried to settle in and keep pitching through, stranding runners.”

Taylor Fuerst was hit by a pitch and took second on a passed ball before coming around to score on the first of two Max Rohr RBI singles to give the Irish a 1-0 lead after an inning. They got a little breathing room on a Lotz RBI groundout and Rohr’s second RBI single, but after that only saw a combined four runners reach base over the final four innings. That included Gavin Jones’ fifth-inning RBI single.

“Playoff ball is a little different than the regular season,” Rohr said. “Like Coach [Aaron] Fuerst said, we found a way to manufacture runs and not just hit, hit, hit. Our guys didn’t have our best stuff at the plate either today, but we found a way to get runs.”

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Bishop McNamara's Callaghan O'Connor, right, fields a throw at third base as Central's Blake Chandler dives in during the Class 2A Herscher Regional semifinals Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)

The first-inning run alone would have been enough for Lotz, who gave up three hits and walks apiece and fanned five in four innings; and Payne, who gave up three hits and a walk and struck out three for the three-inning save.

“Those guys have thrown well all year,” Irish coach Kurt Quick said. “We have a really good, deep staff, and we have a lot of confidence in Jake, Preston and our other guys to where we don’t have to throw Callaghan [O’Connor] and Dom [Panozzo] every game. They got the job done.

“They grinded through, and we were able to get through it.”

Quick also knew they were facing a grinder in Chandler, who helped lead the Comets to this year’s River Valley Conference title. On Thursday, the right-handed junior allowed two earned runs on six hits, three walks and six strikeouts in a complete game.

“When we were talking as a coaching staff on who we’re throwing, this was one of the only times we didn’t have a discussion. ...” Central coach Brian Kohn said. “He doesn’t have the numbers necessarily that a Callaghan or a Panozzo has, but in a big game, it’s hard to argue against Blake on the mound.”

While this year’s Comets team didn’t have a big home-run threat in the middle of the order like prior years with Luke Shoven and Amarion Paxton, the sophomore and junior-heavy Comets did find a way to get the job done throughout the course of the season.

“We didn’t have the Luke or the Amarion, but we had a group that almost didn’t know better,” Kohn said. “They’d struggle in practice one day, then show up and play lights out the next day in a game. ... These guys are ornery enough, quick enough and young enough not to know any better. We don’t have the dudes to necessarily hit the long ball together, but they hit together.”

The Irish will return to Herscher on Saturday morning to take on the host Tigers in one of the area’s fiercest rivalries that will now have a postseason plaque attached to it.

As a McNamara graduate that’s played and coached in green and white – as well as being a former assistant coach at Herscher and the town’s current police chief – not many understand the rivalry the way Quick does.

“It’s always exciting between Herscher and Bishop McNamara,” Quick said. “It’s an intense rivalry. We don’t like each other, but that’s what makes great rivalries. It’s another Herscher-Mac big game, and that’s what it’s about. We want to prepare for that, Herscher will be ready, and it’s going to be fun.”