GENESEO — Nate Ciemny fully expected to pitch Monday during the Class 2A Geneseo Supersectional.
He did not, however, expect to be entering the game so quickly and with his team’s fortunes already somewhat hanging in the balance on what he did next.
Joliet Catholic already trailed by two runs when Ciemny entered the game in place of starter Michael Tuman and had traffic on the basepaths. But Ciemny induced a double-play ball and then came within a whisper of getting out of the inning all together as Hall’s Kyler Lapp legged out an infield hit that allowed Hall to stretch its lead to three runs.
Hall didn’t know it yet, but it was pretty much done for the day courtesy of Ciemny, who struck out nine batters and allowed just the Lapp single and a walk the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Joliet Catholic offense erupted, scoring 13 runs over its last four plate appearances in rolling to a 14-4 victory in five innings.
‘You get a little worried just because this was the first deficit of playoffs, but we weren’t too worried, because we knew we were hot with the bat and we could swing it.”
Tommy Kemp, Joliet Catholic baseball
The win lifts Joliet Catholic (24-8-1) into this weekend’s Class 2A State Tournament at Peoria’s Dozer Park. The Hilltoppers will begin their defense of last year’s 2A title at approximately 5 p.m. Friday with a semifinal matchup against the winner of Monday night’s Bloomington Central Catholic-Quincy Notre Dame supersectional.
“I was expecting going in like later in the game when his pitch count got higher, but that threw me in there. My main goal was just to throw strikes, get ahead in the count and get them out,” Ciemny said. “Once we got ahead and got some runs, it made things even easier.”
Hall started off things with a bang in the first inning, collecting four singles including a two-run single from Hunter Meagher that put the Red Devils ahead 3-0 and handed Joliet Catholic its first deficit in nearly a month.
But the Hilltoppers didn’t seem all that concerned, and an offense that has been on fire since the postseason began started chipping away. Joliet Catholic scored an unearned run in its half of the first to trim the lead to 3-1 when Tommy Kemp collected a bunt single, moved around the bases and eventually scored on a throwing error when he swiped third base.
Two more runs came across in the JCA half of the second inning, as Zach Pomatto and Graham Roesel provided run-scoring hits to make it 4-3.
Ciemny kept the Hall offense locked down, continuing a string of what would be eight consecutive retired batters until he surrendered a one-out walk to Lapp in the fifth inning.
With Hall properly squelched, the Joliet Catholic offense flourished. Kemp led off the third with a single, Kemp would finish the day reaching base in all four plate appearances including three hits. He’d be chased home quickly by a triple from Trey Swiderski, and he’d be plated by a Jake Troyner grounder to give Joliet Catholic the 5-4 lead, one it wouldn’t relinquish.
Joliet Catholic lashed eight more hits over the next two innings to enforce the mercy rule in its half of the fifth inning, leaving Kemp (three hits), Pomatto (three hits), Swiderski (two hits) and Vinny Spotofora (two hits) leading the way as part of a 14-hit Hilltoppers attack.
“So we knew we were hot with the bats,” Kemp said. “So we weren’t really too worried. You get a little worried just because this was the first deficit of playoffs, but we weren’t too worried, because we knew we were hot with the bat and we could swing it.
“And then shout out to Ciem[ny], he locked down once he came in, he locked down and didn’t give up any runs. And when you don’t give up any runs, it makes it easy to rally and get those runs back.”
While the pitching plan diverted a bit from what the Hilltoppers were hoping for, a potent hitting attack that has outscored foes 43-8 in five postseason games once again proved to be enough for a return trip to Peoria.
“We swung the bats extremely well and scored in every inning and put pressure on them the whole way,” Joliet Catholic coach Jared Voss said. “We’ve been waiting for a hitter’s day almost this entire postseason, and we got a hitter’s day today, and our hitters hit.”
After Hall, which finished its season 23-9, got hits from Mac Resetich, Ashton Pecher, Max Bryant and Meagher in the first inning, they’d only get one more hit the rest of the way. Lapp added an infield hit in the second, as the Red Devils finished with five hits and just one baserunner, Lapp’s one-out walk in the fifth, the rest of the way.
