PR rallies in 7th, makes state

Libertyville's Darwin Townsend waits for the pickoff throw as Prairie Ridge's Kyle Hodorowicz slides safely back to first base in the first inning of Thursday's Libertyville Regional championship game of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Summer Classic. Prairie Ridge won, 5-4, to qualify for state. (Sarah Nader - snader@nwherald.com)

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LIBERTYVILLE – Nick Samuels knew his seventh inning at-bat would be defined by how well he kept his cool.

The Prairie Ridge senior wasn’t particularly worried despite a 1-2 count against Libertyville pitcher Michael Rogers with the Wolves down to their last out in a three-run hole.

All summer the Wolves have rallied to pull out exciting victories, and Samuels helped craft another one. He knocked a two-out single to deep left field to tie the score, and Lucas Keller followed with a walk-off single as the Wolves rallied for a 5-4 victory in the Libertyville Regional of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Summer Classic.

The top-seeded Wolves advance to the eight team double-elimination state finals, which begin Monday at either Benedictine University or North Central College.

“We were pretty confident in our ability to come back,” Samuels said. “We’ve done it quite a few times this year so far.”

The outcome seemed unlikely, despite Prairie Ridge’s penchant for late-game heroics. The Wolves stranded eight baserunners, and Libertyville scored three of its four runs on Wolves’ errors, including one of the Wildcats’ two in the top of the seventh that put them ahead, 4-1.

Prairie Ridge got to work in the bottom of the inning. Senior Brad Schillinger drew a leadoff walk from Libertyville reliever Alex Semersky and scored when Wolves senior Kyle Hodorowicz tried to bunt and the throw to first went over first baseman Darwin Townsend’s head and into deep right field, where it was bobbled.

Hodorowicz ended up at third on the error, and Schillinger’s run trimmed the Wolves’ deficit to 4-2 with no outs.

Semersky hit Jordan Getzelman with a pitch to put runners at the corners with no outs, and Rogers – relieving Semersky – walked Prairie Ridge senior Nick Bianchi to load the bases.

Rogers got senior Matt Krenz to pop out to second and senior Corey Peterson to fly out to right before Samuels drilled his two-out, game-tying single.

Keller’s walk-off single to deep right field to drive in pinch-runner Tyler Tennant was redeeming.

Keller had relieved Prairie Ridge starter Mike Reitcheck and surrendered the two seventh-inning runs.

“I’d had a couple bad at-bats earlier, and then that tough inning pitching, so when I got that hit it was pretty exciting,” Keller said. “We always had the feeling that we could do it.”

Wolves coach Glen Pecoraro has grown accustomed to these nail-biting finishes.

“We’ve been scoring 10 runs a game, and this one ends up being 2-1 for most of it,” Pecoraro said. “ ... These guys did a great job of fighting back.”