Carmel lives to play another day
GURNEE -- Warren High's Sean Kennedy, working on two consecutive home runs, died in the on-deck circle as Saturday's IHSA Class 4A regional championship game came to an end.
With a pair of runners on base and two outs, Carmel High reliever Jordan Sivertsen induced No. 3 Blue Devils hitter Chad Johnson to hit a game-ending infield grounder and the Corsairs came away with a 5-3 win and the title hardware.
The big blow of the game came off the bat of Carmel leadoff man Brian Siedlecki, who blasted a two-run fourth-inning triple that gave Carmel a 3-2 lead at the time.
"It was a fastball down the middle, and I just turned on it," said Siedlecki, whose three-base drive went to the wall between the center- and right-fielders.
A bases-loaded walk to Joe Pudlo later that same inning plated Siedlecki and turned out to be the game-winning run for Carmel.
The victory was the 30th of the year against five losses for coach Chuck Gandolfi's Corsairs, who nailed down their fourth regional championship in the last five years. It netted Gandolfi's 10th regional plaque in a 20-year career that has seen the coach net more than 500 wins.
"We had a lot of early chances," said Gandolfi following the game, "which kind of worried me when we didn't score more."
The Corsairs left runners on base in every inning, stranding 10 in the seven-inning contest.
"Pitching and defense won today," the Carmel head coach continued. "And we answered with runs of our own every time they scored."
Warren, which finished its season 18-14, scored first in the third, answered by a Carmel run in the bottom half of that inning. Carmel responded to Kennedy's solo homer in the fourth with its three-run scoring burst, then added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth to offset another solo shot by Kennedy in the sixth.
The Corsairs utlized their double-ace pitching tandem of Bobby Lyne, who started and went 5.2 innings, and Sivertsen, who closed out the last 1.1 and netted the save.
Siedlecki was the most productive offensive player for the winners, going 2 for 2 with 3 RBIs, 2 runs, a walk and 2 stolen bases. PREP BASEBALL
