The LAHS varsity baseball team played a nail biter against St. Ignatius–coming up just short and losing the game 2-3 yesterday, May 19. This game ended LAHS’s hopes of advancing to the next round of CCS playoffs.
When junior Steven Mclean caught a laser off the bat of Wildcat junior Nico Giarratano for the first out, fans knew it would be a close game.
The Eagles came into Washington Park with high hopes of continuing their quest to win CCS. Although senior Luke Wiechec pitched a fantastic outing, the Eagles just simply could not put another run on the board to match up with the Wildcats.
“I think it was really in many regards the two best teams in the playoffs playing today,” Eagles manager Sandy Wihtol said. “They just got us today; other days we would have probably would have gotten them.”
Luke kept LAHS in the game by pitching a complete game allowing seven hits, three earned runs and fanning 11 batters in total.
“It wasn’t that hard to pitch the whole game,” Luke said. “I had a great defense playing behind me, [so I] just had to throw strikes and my defense did the work. I really wasn’t trying to strike people out; I was just trying to throw my pitch and they were swinging and missing.”
Luke also provided one of the two Eagle runs in the game. In the bottom of the first, with two on and no outs, Wiechec singled to right field to bring Steven home.
“Coach called a hit and run, guy threw me a fastball away,” Luke said. “I just tried to make contact and find a hole.”
Following up Luke’s at-bat, senior Nolan O’Such singled senior Joe Chedid home, putting the Eagles up 2-0 in the first.
From then on, the Eagles had total control of the game. Luke pitched flawlessly through four innings with a great defense making plays all around.
The Eagles were close to perfect until 6’4’’ and 210 pounder senior Travis McDow came to the plate and hit a solo shot to center field to put the Wildcats on the board. It was then in the same inning that the Wildcats offense showed up to hit. St. Ignatius was able to come up with two 2-out knocks that scored in two runs, putting the Wildcats up 3-2 after the fifth.
Although the Eagles showed great at-bats and battled at the plate until the very last pitch, they were not able to score the extra run to put the pressure on the Wildcats.
“Luke pitched a heck of a ballgame, just as he has all the time,” Wihtol said. “it just was a tough loss.”
With the loss, the Eagles end yet another great run to win it all this year. The team had a superb season with a great mixture of seniors and underclassmen. With young talent and a good core of varsity players returning next year, coach Wihtol hopes to have another great season in 2013.
“I’m gonna miss the graduating seniors,” Wihtol said. “This has probably been one of the best group of seniors who gave back to the program. They led by a very good example and it’s not always that you get groups of seniors like that. It’s going to be tough to replace them, but I think there are a lot of things that the younger classmen can look to and see what those guys provided in terms of their leadership.”
The end of the season also signifies the farewell of one of LAHS’s greatest: senior Luke Wiechec. Saturday was the last day fans could catch a glimpse of #22 on the mound wearing an Eagles jersey.
“It was the funnest season I’ve ever played,” Luke said. “[There’s a] great group of guys out here, can’t be more proud of them. I’m just really excited for these guys. We have a great young group coming up and I’m hoping they will continue the LAHS tradition of playing good baseball.”
