M-S baseball wins Regional, falls to Springfield in Sectional Semi-final
By FRED KRONER
Mahomet-Seymour’s baseball team ended a 12-year drought on Monday (June 7) by winning a Class 3A baseball regional championship at home.
The Bulldogs edged Centennial 2-1 to capture the school’s first postseason hardware in baseball since 2009. Since restarting the baseball program in 1972, M-S has now captured six regional crowns in the sport.
Blake Wolters pitched a complete-game three-hitter and received all of the offensive support he would need in the bottom of the third inning when Nate McFall slugged a two-run home run that also scored Brayden Smith.
Wolters walked one and struck out five. He yielded a solo homer in the top of the fourth inning.
McFall, who has homered in both of the Bulldogs’ postseason games, collected two hits as did Zac Carr.
Carr also stole two bases.
M-S won both games in the season series with Centennial (13-14).
The Bulldogs’ season came to an end on Wednesday (June 9) with a 7-3 loss to Springfield, in a Class 3A sectional semifinal game at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
Second-seeded M-S scored twice in the top of the first inning and carried a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth, when the top-seeded Senators posted six runs.
Chase Wagers collected two of the Bulldogs’ four hits and knocked in two runs. Will Sampson and Mateo Casillas produced the other M-S hits.
Casillas (1-1) was the starting pitcher and took the loss. He worked 4 2/3 innings and walked two while striking out three.
M-S ended the season with an overall record of 15-11, including wins in eight of 10 games through the regional. Springfield is 27-5.
The sectional setback snapped a five-game winning streak in which M-S had outscored the opponents 49-7.
For the 26-game season, the Bulldogs averaged 9.1 runs per game and allowed an average of 6.3 runs per game. M-S shut out two opponents and were shut out once, in the season-opener.
The M-S seniors were Nate McFall, Andrew Norman, Will Sampson, Nicholas Schiaretti and Zac Carr.
M-S coach Nic DiFilippo said the “amazing senior class paved the way for a bright future.”
Nine Bulldogs finished the season with .300, or better, batting averages, led by Wagers (.442 average).
Other team leaders (with at least 15 at-bats) were Wolters (.416), Sampson (.390), McFall (.369), Casillas (.365), Smith (.360), Carr (.338), Evan Ruzich (.313) and Norman (.309).
The Bulldog RBI leaders were Wagers (31) and Sampson (26). The team-leaders in runs scored were McFall (34) and Sampson (27).
Sampson (13) and McFall (8) hit the most doubles. Wagers and Wolters were the triples’ leaders, with two apiece. Casillas was the home run leader (3). Closely behind him were Carr, McFall and Sampson, with two apiece.
Wagers had 10 games with two, or more, hits. Wolters and Sampson had nine multi-hit games each.
The stolen base leaders were Norman (22), McFall (16) and Jaedon Lager (15).
M-S used 14 different pitchers throughout the season. The four with the most innings pitched all average more than one strikeout per inning.
Wolters fanned 38 batters in 32 innings. Zach Courson registered 28 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. Carr struck out 25 in 22 innings. Casillas had 25 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings.
Wolters (5-2) had the best won-loss record followed by Wagers (3-1), Carr (3-3) and Nicholas Schiaretti (2-1).
The best earned run averages, for those with at least 10 innings pitched, belonged to Wolters (4.16), Carr (4.45) and Casillas (5.59).
