JCOnline:
It took almost nine hours from first pitch to last to complete Monday's Class A Central Catholic baseball sectional semifinals at Leming Field.
ut there wasn't really any prolonging of the drama. The only unexpected aspect of the eventual Frontier-Central Catholic championship game matchup was its postponement until tonight at 7.
The top-ranked Falcons waited out a rain and lightning delay of nearly four hours before finishing off an 11-3 semifinal victory over Tri-Central. Central Catholic opened the day with a 10-0 victory over Rossville.
"It's a cool atmosphere," said Frontier senior Dylan Sterrett, who drove in three runs and scored three more on Monday, of playing CC for the championship. "Everybody will be here. There will be lines (of people) down there like there were two years ago. Should be fun."
Both Frontier (29-1) and Central Catholic (22-7) started their No. 2 pitchers in the semifinals. Sterrett (10-0, 0.95 ERA) and CC senior Taylor Glaze (6-2, 0.99 ERA) are expected to take the mound tonight.
Sterrett and Glaze have not faced each other since the 2008 sectional championship, which the Falcons won 3-0. Neither took the mound during the teams' regular season meeting, when CC routed Frontier 22-3 in Chalmers.
"We've got to know that they're going to come out ready to play, but we've got to come out and be more intense and focused," said CC senior Scott Windler, who went 3-for-4 with a home run and two doubles against Rossville.
Frontier led Tri-Central 3-2 in the top of the fourth before the first rain delay, which lasted 24 minutes. First baseman Frank Fisk extended his area home run lead to 14 with a two-run shot during a four-run bottom of the fourth, and the Falcons scored three more in the fifth.
Tri-Central's Josh Copp homered leading off the top of the sixth to make it 10-3, but Frontier's Travis Demerly (8-1) set the next three Trojans down in order. With winds picking up at Leming Field, officials covered the infield with tarpaulins before intermittent rains fell for the next three-plus hours.The Falcons played games in the auxiliary gymnasium at CC while waiting to find out if play would resume
"Whenever you start a game, you should finish it," said Fisk, who went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs. "We were lucky enough today to have the weather hold off."
Demerly scattered four hits, walked three and struck out nine over six innings. Grant Ream doubled and scored in the third and added a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Central Catholic continued a recent trend of lopsided sectional victories over Rossville. Windler, Chas Bobillo and Austin Munn all doubled during a four-run top of the first, and the Knights collected 14 hits.
"Being (the visitor), we get that first chance to get up there to hit and get run support," said Munn, who doubled twice. "We know that our pitcher's going to shut them down."
Brett Haan started and threw three perfect innings for the Knights. Ben Cramer (2-0) relieved and finished off the three-hit shutout.
For the past four seasons, the Hornets have drawn Central Catholic in the sectional semifinals, and the Knights have outscored them 53-0. Matt Ummel doubled and singled for Rossville (9-17), which has not scored in sectional play since 2004 and has been outscored 78-0 in that span.
"You've got to put pressure on a team like this; you've got to put runs on them," Hornets coach Michael Gick said. "We competed, but at some point we've got to get past that level and really get after a game, especially against a team like that. They've had our number for quite a while."
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