Last year's Class 4A champions were looking to defend their crown once again, but a resilient York Dukes squad was standing in their way. Last year the Tigers defeated Brother Rice 7-4 and Mundelein 4-3 to capture their second state title since 2019. The Dukes lost 2-1 to McHenry in the Supersectionals, who eventually took 4th place in the state.
In the Sectionals, the Dukes pulled off a 2-0 upset of St. Charles East in the Semifinals and defeated Batavia 4-3 in the Championship. In the Supersectional, they shutout Honenegah 5-0.
The Tigers knocked off O'Fallon 9-5 and Minooka 3-2 in the Sectionals. In the Supersectional they beat Oswego East 5-2.
The Tiger bats erupted early on as they scored 5 first inning runs off York lefty Tommy Van Daff. The back breaking moment came when Tigers shortstop Kayden Jennings clubbed at 3-run homerun over the leftfield wall. Van Daff gave up the 5 runs on just 2 hits, walked 5, and struckout 2 in 2 plus innings.
Jennings (2/3, 3-R HR, 4 RBI) added an RBI single in the fifth moments after a sac fly by Andrew Hendrickson (0/0, 2 walks, RBI). Rightfielder Caeleb Copeland went 1/2 with an RBI double in the first inning, and a walk.
Tigers righthander Joey Chiarodo gave up 1 run on 5 hits in 5.1 innings, walked 4, and struckout 7. The Dukes got their first run in the 4th inning on a Paul Reedy (1/4) RBI single.
Things did get interesting in the 7th. Tiger relievers loaded the bases with 2 outs, and allowed back-to-back RBI walks. Hendrickson would get the final out, striking out Paul Reedy to seal the 7-3 victory.
The Tigers will go for their third state title in four seasons (no baseball in 2020) against Brother Rice Saturday evening in a rematch of last year's state semifinal.
Comments