By Drake Skleba
For the Bugle
With the hosts from Joliet Catholic Academy comfortably ahead of the their guests from Manteno 7-0, all was well at historic Gillespie Field on Saturday.
Hilltopper starting and winning pitcher, Alex Vera (8-2), had knocked down the first 11 Panther batters, before allowing his first hit of the game, in the top of the fourth inning.
The normally impregnable Hilltopper defense imploded with three errors and the Interstate 8 Conference South Division Panthers (22-9) were within 7-2 after four innings.
What seemed to be an easy 2019 IHSA Class 3A Joliet Catholic Academy Regional Championship for the Hilltoppers, suddenly wasn’t that easy.
In the top of the fifth, the Panthers knocked Vera out of the game and pull to within 7-4. Senior Josh Ragusa picked up a huge strikeout to end the Panther fifth.
Enter Dan Wuestenfeld.
Wuestenfeld led off the Hilltopper fifth with his second home-run of the season. JCA (27-7) added two more runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth and roll to the 12-4 regional championship victory.
“I was looking for a fastball. I knew their pitcher wanted to get ahead on the count,” Wuestenfeld said. “I got a fastball and I was able to hit it out of here. Great win today and I’m confident we will go to Ottawa and win the sectional championship. This team never gives up.”
The Hilltoppers scored two runs in the top of the first on senior shortstop Jared Cushing’s (2-for-3, 2RBI) RBI single and a Panther miscue.
Four more Hilltopper runs would cross the plate in the second inning.
Senior right fielder Mike Gurka tripled home a run for a 3-0 lead. Senior centerfielder Greg Ziegler (2-for-3, 2B, RBI), who’s double would score Gurka for a 4-0 lead. Cushing’s RBI single scored Ziegler and Cushing scored on a wild pitch.
Gurka made it 7-0 on an RBI ground out in the third.
“Manteno is a really scrappy team and they fought hard,” Gurka said. “ I was seeing the ball really well. I am so confident at the plate and one needs to have that confidence to be successful at the plate.”
After Wuestenfeld’s bomb, Gurka made it 9-4 with an RBI double — his third RBI of the game. Junior second baseman Christian Knapczyk drove home Gurka on an RBI single.
In the Hilltopper sixth, senior Tony Fleischauer in his last at bat of his JCA career at historic Gillespie Field hammered a two-run blast to make it 12-4 Hilltoppers.
“We are playing great and moving on. Go Hill,” Fleischauer said. “It was awesome to hit my first home run ever here at home. I’ve touched the warning track way too many times.”
“What a great win for us today,” Cushing said. “It was so exciting to play in front of so many people. We opened up our new deck in left field and it was packed. There were people everywhere. What an atmosphere. We really hit the ball well today and our senior veterans helped lead us to this important regional championship.”
Senior relief pitchers Zak Gould and Zach Hise slammed the door on the Panthers in the sixth and seventh innings. Hise would ended the game by dialing up a 5-4-3 double-play — Wuestenfeld-Knapczyk-Cullen — game over.
“We hit the ball well today. Mike Gurka hit well for us,” JCA head coach Jared Voss said. “We jumped out to the big, early lead and put pressure on them. Manteno did not quit and Dan’s home run was a huge reason we won this game.”
The Hilltoppers will meet Tinley Park (26-6) in Wednesday’s second IHSA Class 4A Sectional Semifinal at 6:30. The Hilltoppers ended the Titans 2018 season in this game last season 10-0.