Triton still alive in Region 4 baseball tourney

The Triton College baseball team is attempting to win the Region 4 Division I championship round the hard way at Symonds-Puckett Field.

After losing to defending titlist South Suburban College by the football-like score of 20-10 May 11, the 37-19 Trojans hung on for dear life in a 6-4 victory nearly three hours later over 6-40 Kishwaukee College.

The victory qualified Triton for a noon rematch Saturday, May 13 against South Suburban (39-19). The Trojans will have to win that game, and then beat the Bulldogs in another contest to capture the championship.

The hosts will have a chance if they get the kind of pitching that right-hander Kevin Pauly displayed in the Kishwaukee game. After the Trojans staff was beaten up in the first contest, Pauly was amazingly efficient giving up two runs in seven innings, striking out five and throwing just 81 pitches.

"It was a must-win situation after we didn't do well in the first game," Pauly (2-1) said. "I was locating my fastball."

Meanwhile, third baseman Camden Karczewski had enough gas in his tank to help Pauly offensively. After his grand-slam homer highlighted a nine-run Trojans second inning following a seven-run Bulldogs first in Game 1, Karczewski put his team ahead 4-0 in the second inning of the nightcap.

"I was hitting the ball well, able to drive it down the left-field line," Karczewski said of his clutch hit.

The Trojans had to chip away against the determined Kougars, who lost to Triton 12-3 at Symonds-Puckett Field on April 27. Keyber Rodriguez drove in two runs with an infield single and sacrifice fly. Deeiby Garcia accounted for the final run with a fifth-inning single.

Pauly was helped out by an unlikely closer – lineup mainstay Jake Kutella, shifted over from first base. Preserving his staff for the hoped-for South Suburban twin rematches, head coach Harry Torgerson had to summon Kutella to bail out reliever Kaydon Norkus to protect a four-run lead with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth.

Kutella allowed a two-run single, but then induced a double-play grounder to get out of further trouble. Then, in the ninth, Kutella struck out Blake Novinsky with the tying run with man on second, then retired ex-Trojan Jack Ryan to fly to left to end the game.

The Trojans were likely playing on adrenalin by that point.

"It was a long day and guys were tired," said Karczewski. "We had to grind through."

Torgerson urged his team to give just a little more after the first-game frustration.

"Coach fired us up to win the second game," said Pauly.

The first game would have tired anyone out. South Suburban's seven-run first was highlighted by Johnny Lemm's and Evan Pearce's homers. The visitors led 8-1 when Triton hit them with the nine-run second. In addition to Karczewski's grand slam, Felix Rodriguez and Jayden Gonzalez each had two-run doubles while Keyber Rodriguez collected a run-scoring single.

But the Bulldogs took the lead again at 11-10 in the third, then began blew the game open with three runs in the seventh and five more in the ninth.

"We knew we put up 10 runs, but if we didn't score more, we weren't going to win," said Karczewski. "We needed to score 18 to 20 runs."
 
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(Story by tritonathletics.com contributor George Castle)