MOUNT ZION — One bad inning spelled doom for the two Sangamon County baseball teams in Wednesday’s Class 3A Mount Zion Sectional semifinal.
Sacred Heart-Griffin (25-8) saw its two-run lead vanish when Normal U-High sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs in the bottom of the first as the Pioneers lived the adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.
Chatham Glenwood (25-9) sophomore pitcher Cole Woodward plunked three batters in the top of the sixth and Champaign Central scored two runs to snap a tie game en route to its 3-1 win over the Titans.
U-High (28-5) and Central (32-6) will meet in the sectional championship game on Saturday at the Mount Zion baseball complex on Saturday at 10 a.m. The Pioneers handed the Maroons an 18-2, four-inning loss on March 20.
Dueling rocky starts
SHG junior catcher Mikey Groesch parked a two-run fly ball beyond the fence in left field to give the 2025 Class 2A state champion Cyclones a 2-0 lead and tons of good feels in the third-base dugout.
“It felt good,” Groesch said. “Got off to an early lead. Unfortunately, we couldn’t manufacture the runs we needed.”
That didn’t last long.
With one out in the bottom half, Griffin Meyer doubled to left, Caleb Hornbrook singled up the middle and U-High starting pitcher Parker Roop singled to score Meyer. After SHG pitcher Drew Ward plunked Bodey Klemmensen to load the bases, Rhett Lynch hit an RBI single to tie the game.
Myles Mitchell’s sacrifice fly put U-High in front, 3-2, and two batters later, Chenzo Cottone singled to left for a 4-2 lead.
Both pitchers then settled into a groove after that. Ward retired 10 straight and worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth. Roop also allowed just one base runner over his next four innings until Carson Butler and Groesch both took pitches to their bodies before Austin Rutter walked to load the bases with two outs in the top of the sixth. That’s when U-High coach Charlie Shempf brought in sophomore Issac Schroeder, who got Dylan Clow to ground out to first base as Schroeder barely beat Clow to the bag and end the Cyclones’ threat.
In the seventh, Schroeder retired Rowan Mizeur on a ground ball before striking out Levi Daly and Ethan Cour.
“Not the way we wanted to go out,” SHG coach Nick Naumovich said. “I thought we competed and I thought we played our butts off. It was just one of those days that’s not yours. That’s baseball.
“We’ve had some bounces over the last year that went our way, but today just wasn’t ours.”
SHG beat U-High 4-0 in a Central State Eight Conference meeting at SHG on April 28 and SHG emerged with a 16-10 win over the Pioneers on May 14 in McLean County.
“There’s always motivation when you’re playing in a sectional, but we kind of felt like we owed (SHG) one,” Shempf said. “A couple of competitive games against them early in the season and our assistant coaches did a really great job game-planning for tonight and did a really great job preparing all of our pitchers and where our defense played it. It paid off tonight.”
From the second through the sixth innings, Ward allowed just one base runner on a fifth-inning walk. His brilliance over those five innings will be overshadowed by the loss, but Naumovich and Groesch were both proud of Ward’s response.
“That goes back to our maturity, and these guys have been in those situations over and over again,” Naumovich said. “A little rocky start, but we knew he was going to settle in and lock down. I thought he pitched great moving forward.”
Groesch, who took a ball to the groin, was in obvious pain but stayed in and finished the game, said Ward battled.
“That’s Drew Ward: he’s a gamer, he’s going to do it and he has done it his whole career here since he was a sophomore. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for us today.”
Early lead not enough for Titans
Grady Mueller, the Glenwood No. 7 hitter, launched a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third to give the Titans a 1-0 lead.
“I thought there was a chance (it was gone), but I still sprinted around,” Mueller said.
Central sophomore pitcher Ryan Pipkins finished a complete-game gem with just 89 pitches, five strikeouts, three hits, one run and one walk.
It was a performance more of an upperclassman than someone whose driver’s license is still drying. He was also 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored at the plate.
“I felt great the whole game,” Pipkins said. “I just knew it was going to be a big day.
“I trust my team behind me. I know any ball put in play, they’ve got it. I have the full trust in the defense behind me.”
Pipkins’ dominance allowed Tre Cole to tie the game with an RBI single to center in the fifth for the tying run.
In the sixth, Glenwood coach turned to his sophomore, Woodward, in relief.
Wilson McDaniel led off with a single before a scary moment when junior Tanner Mast squared to bunt, took a pitch off his hand and into his forehead. Mast laid on the turf for several minutes, eventually got up and took his base before being lifted for a pinch runner.
Woodward hit the next batter, Will Cicoria, to load the bases before Woodward got Ian Weber to ground into a 1-2-3 double play. Pipkins was intentionally walked to load the bases for the potential force out, but John Timmons was the third Maroons’ batter to get hit by a pitch. Ben McDaniel then made those painful passes pay off with a two-run single through the right side, past a diving Logan Osmonson.
In the bottom of the sixth, Glenwood had two on and one out, but Pipkins got out of the jam by getting Dylan Huff to fly out to center and Tucker Murphy to end the threat with a ground out to shortstop.
“(Pipkins) changed speeds well, mixed it up, threw a breaking ball for a strike and kept us off-balance a little bit,” Glenwood coach Casey Erickson said. “I still thought we had some good swings on him, but didn’t hit enough balls where they weren’t.”
Quinten Hale had a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh, but Osmonson struck out before Mueller grounded out to third.
Central stranded 10 runners on base, including at least one in each inning. Maroons’ coach John Staab said he didn’t worry his players would get frustrated.
“Me? I’d probably get more frustrated than they would,” Staab said with a smile. “I was really pleased with the way we bunted the ball. We have not bunted the ball well all year and we’ve really worked at it. Guys came through and you just kind of figure the dam’s going to break.”
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: One bad inning costs SHG, Glenwood baseball in sectional semifinals
Reporting by Ryan Mahan, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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By Ryan Mahan, Springfield State Journal-Register | USA TODAY Network
