Quinn Rooney’s three-run blast rallies Benet past Kaneland to regional title

MAPLE PARK – Nursing a 1-0 advantage over Benet in the second inning of Saturday’s Class 3A regional title game, on its home field, Kaneland wiggled out of a base loaded jam to stay in front.

Leading 2-0 in the fifth, the Knights were unable to replicate the feat allowing Benet to score five runs to pull ahead.

Squelching a Kaneland seventh inning rally, the Redwings held on for a 5-4 win and the regional championship.

Second-seeded Benet (23-12) will return to Kaneland Wednesday for a 4:30 sectional semifinal game with top seed Burlington Central (20-16), who claimed its own regional Saturday with a 7-2 win over Rockford Boylan.

“Two mistakes on our part in the fifth inning put that team right back in it. We made it interesting at the end with the go-ahead run at the plate,” Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said.

”We put ourselves in position all day to take the lead or win the game and that’s all we can ask for our guys to do. We did a great job today and one play here or there and it’s a completely different ball game, but that’s baseball.”

Kaneland (25-11) starting pitcher Hayden Foster struck out pinch hitter Luke Stachowiak to open Benet’s half of the fifth. Nathan Cerocke followed with a single to center, Benet’s second hit of the game. Merrick Sullivan reached on an infield error and Luke Wildes drew a walk to load the bases.

Josh Gugora’s topper to the left side of the infield was fielded and sent to home plate in an effort to force out Cerocke. But the throw was off the mark and rolled to the backstop, allowing both Cerocke and Sullivan to score and tie the game.

Benet first baseman Quinn Rooney then came to the plate and sent the second pitch he saw over the right field fence for a three-run homer to put his team in the lead.

“I was just trying to stay relaxed in the box, do nothing special, just trying to help my team out and got it on the barrel,” Rooney said. “I didn’t even think it was a home run, but it just kept carrying.”

Trailing by two in the seventh inning and down to its last out, third seed Kaneland attempted its own comeback.

Junior Aidan Whildin smashed a double to the right field gap. Brady Alstott followed with a seeing eye single up the middle that scored Whildin. But Benet reliever Lucas Kohlmeyer ended the threat and the game by inducing Thomas Thill to fly out to right.

“We knew coming in today that we were going to play seven innings and regardless of what happens, just play every out,” Benet coach Scott Lawler said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games all year long, so our kids are used to playing in that pressure and they did a great job of not flinching when thing didn’t go our way.”

Foster, a junior right hander, held Benet at bay over the first four innings by striking out six, issuing two walks and yielding a single. The two walks plus an infield error put Benet runners on all three bases in the second with no outs. The threat ended with two swinging strike outs and an infield ground out.

“Hayden did a great job pitching for us -what a great outing,” Aversa said. “He was a bulldog today. He did all that we asked him to do.”

Foster, after pitching four and a third innings, turned the ball over to reliever Justin Weissmann after Rooney’s home run.

Knight batters found Benet starting pitcher Gino Zagorac just as challenging, collecting only two hits off the right hander. Zagorac was replaced by Kohlmeyer after facing the leadoff batter in the sixth inning.

“It took me an inning g to settle in. I really only have my fastball,” Zagorac said. “Throughout I was able to throw pitches in the zone, kept them off balance and worked my way through the lineup.”

Kaneland capitalized on any advantage to push a runner across home plage. Nathan Campbell scored the team’s first run on an Antonio Villanueva ground out in the second inning. The Knights scored a run in both the third and sixth innings on wild pitches.

“It was a great game all the way through, a tight game with timely hitting,” Kaneland senior first baseman Dylan Borysiewicz. said.