ROCHELLE -- After suffering through a 7-23 regular season and bringing up the rear in the Southwest Prairie Conference, Oswego baseball coach Chris Neitzel could preach until he was blue in the face that the postseason is a new season.
For most teams in that situation, it becomes lip service and the season comes to a close quickly. But in the Panthers' case, the words must have struck a chord.
Oswego's improbable run through the postseason continued Wednesday, as the Panthers topped Freeport 2-1 in the Class 3A Rochelle Sectional semifinals. The win earns them a berth in Saturday's sectional title game against the winner of today's Burlington Central/Rock Island game at 11 a.m.
"We've got a lot of guys with character," winning pitcher Drew Nicholson said. "We didn't let the regular season get us down. That was the main thing. We had a lot of guys start to pick up their game at the end to try to make a run in the playoffs."
Nicholson (5-5) was a big part of that Wednesday. Nicholson pitched a complete game for the win, wiggling out of big jams in both the first and fifth innings and weathering a nerve-wracking seventh inning that ended with freshman right fielder Parker Meek's running catch of Wes Jeffrey's shot to the right-center gap to seal the win.
"You can't say enough about the way Drew pitched," Neitzel said. "He pitched outstanding. He really felt comfortable out there. We call the pitches, but he's really in command. He knows what he's doing out there."
Up 2-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, Freeport's Jared Raupp led off the inning by reaching on an error. Nicholson then induced a pair of groundouts to put the Panthers on the verge of advancing. But No. 9 hitter Isaiah Almasy cracked a double over Meek's head in right to cut the lead to 2-1. The next batter was Jeffrey, and this time, Meek was in perfect position as he caught the ball going to his left on the dead run to end the game.
"I trust my coaches," Meek said. "They put me in the right spot. They just hit the ball where I wasn't; I can't do anything about that. I know the last hit, the coaches put me in the right spot and it worked out."
Oswego took the lead with single runs in the first and second off of Freeport starter Beau Petta. Josh Wagner led the game off with a walk, stole second and scored on Ryan Prinzing's single to make it 1-0. Nicholson then got out of a jam in the bottom of the inning. With runners on first and second with one out, Luke Wichmann lined into a double play.
"It pretty much set the tone, because usually, the first inning really dooms us," Nicholson said. "It boosted our confidence a lot out there."
In the second, Oswego's Adam Brooking led off with a single and eventually scored on Steve Figgins' single. But the Panthers were left wondering about what could have been when Jake Wagner's bunt attempt was ruled to have hit his foot, rendering him out and taking the Panthers -- who had three singles to lead off the inning -- out of a big inning.
Freeport (16-16) lifted Petta after three innings and brought in ace Kevin Flack. The Panthers were fortunate to be leading when the switch was made, because Flack was masterful over the final four innings. Flack struck out four, walked two and did not allow a hit the rest of the way.
"In hindsight, (the first inning) looks really big," Neitzel said. "I thought we'd score more runs, obviously. When they brought Flack in, he really shut us down. I think they were kind of rolling the dice and thought they could get by us. If you see our record, it's kind of deceiving."
It's true; 10-23 does not look good on paper. But the record that matters is 3-0, and the Panthers will take that postseason mark to the field Saturday with a sectional championship on the line.
Baseball: Class 3A Rochelle Sectional
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