Gino Zagorac, Merrick Sullivan pace Benet to first sectional title since 2017 in win over St. Francis

MAPLE PARK — Gino Zagorac was ready to keep things scoreless on the mound for Benet.

After three straight games where the Redwings hadn’t found the scoreboard until at least the fifth inning, the Wichita State commit was ready to battle and hold St. Francis off the board before the bats woke up later in the contest.

So when the Redwings gave him five runs of support by the time he reached the mound for his second inning of work, he definitely felt a sense of relief.

“Seeing runs come across the board early, that just makes pitching a lot easier,” Zagorac said. “When you’ve got run support and a defense that plays as well as it did, it helps a lot.”

And that relief translated into a big-time effort on the mound.

Zagorac finished the game allowing just one hit while striking out six batters to help the Redwings to their first sectional title since 2017 with a 7-0 victory over St. Francis.

“This is just something that we’ve had our eyes on all year,” Zagorac said. “After we got knocked out in the sectional semifinals last year, we came out knowing what we wanted to do and knowing how it feels to lose and not wanting it to happen again.”

The Redwings (24-12) will look to advance to their first state tournament in program history with a win in the supersectional against Washington at 6 p.m. Monday.

A majority of Zagorac’s run support came from a four-run second inning. With one run already scored and the bases loaded, senior Merrick Sullivan — who was the hero in Thursday’s nine-inning sectional semifinal victory over Burlington Central — came through again with a bases-clearing double to make it 5-0.

“Just like that last game, I missed my chance earlier in the game and knew I had to take advantage of it that time,” Sullivan said. “To get the bats going and to give Gino that extra run support early on, I think it really helped him power through.”

Benet wasted no time finding the scoreboard after needing nine innings to do so against Burlington Central. After Nathan Cerocke led the game off with a walk, the junior proceeded to steal second and third before coming home on a throwing error for his first of three runs scored on the day.

“I just wanted to facilitate runs and find my way across the plate there,” Cerocke said. “Breaking that zero right away was what I think got our guys going, so it was super exciting.”

Cerocke and Sullivan both also came around the bases in the fifth inning to make it 7-0, which was more than enough for Zagorac to work comfortably.

“At the end of the day, I wanted to win, but also wanted to do it in a good way,” Sullivan said. “So to knock them out in kind of a good way made me feel pretty good about it.”

The Spartans (26-10) found themselves in an early scoring situation in the first inning, getting leadoff batter Zack Maduzia to third base after a walk and a throwing error with no outs, which would later turn into bases-loaded with two outs. But the Spartans never managed to cross the plate.

Senior Colt Armbrust recorded the team’s only hit in the contest with a single down the third-base line in the fourth inning, while junior Peter Solloway pitched three scoreless innings of relief.

“The tone for the game was set in that first inning,” Spartans coach Tom Ciombor said. “But on the flip side, you just got to tip the cap to the pitcher. We got beat, we didn’t beat ourselves, and we can live with that. This is a great group of kids. We made it to the final 16 teams, just ran out of steam.”