The five-year reign as NJCAA Region 4 Division I champions ended for the Triton College baseball team in a 16-6 loss to South Suburban College May 14 in South Holland.
The Trojans had won four consecutive regional titles since 2016 as last year's tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Triton finished the season with a 24-14 record.
Head coach
Harry Torgerson had to patch together his pitching staff all season as injuries along with other factors took a toll on the Trojans staff. Unfortunately, Triton could not contain a quality Bulldog offense as the Trojans used seven pitchers in the title game.
Triton as a staff walked 11 along with hitting five South Suburban batters. Of those 16 free base runners, nine of them scored and was too much for the Trojans to overcome.
The Bulldogs (41-17) took control in their half of the second inning as they took advantage of four walks and a hit batter to put up a five-spot. Donavan Noble's RBI double got the scoring started for South Suburban. But the key moment came later in the frame with two outs and the bases loaded, Logan Anderson cleared the bases with a triple off the center fence to make it 4-0. The Bulldogs scored one more run in the inning on a bases loaded walk that forced in a run.
After having several scoring opportunities in the first game of the championship series with South Suburban, the Triton bats were held in check for the first six innings of game two. The bad news for the Trojans was the deficit was 16-2 by the time the offense got going.
Triton hit a home run in each of the last three innings.
Matt Flaherty (Lake Zurich) hit a solo blast in the seventh,
Michael Kocen (Warren Township) a two-run homer in the eighth and
Colin Summerhill (Loyola Academy) knocked out a solo home run in the ninth.
The Trojans scored their other two tallies in the fifth on RBI singles
Jerimiah Cangelosi (Pataskala, OH) and
Bobby Wisz (Lemont).
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