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38 | June 14, 2018 | The orland park prairie sports<br />
opprairie.com<br />
Sandburg tries to be upbeat after two losses in Joliet<br />
JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor<br />
Pitcher Evan Tenuta fires a pitch during his last high school<br />
start for Sandburg on Saturday, June 9. He is heading to<br />
Notre Dame in the fall.<br />
First off, there likely isn’t<br />
anyone around Sandburg<br />
baseball circles who were<br />
happy about what happened<br />
over the weekend.<br />
The Eagles, who were<br />
eyeing a shot at an Illinois<br />
High School Association<br />
Class 4A baseball championship<br />
on Friday, June<br />
8 and Saturday, June 9,<br />
were outscored 14-4 in two<br />
games and left 15 men on<br />
base at the state finals at Joliet<br />
Route 66 Field.<br />
They dropped a 7-3 contest<br />
to Plainfield North in<br />
the semifinals and a 7-1<br />
setback to Lake Park in the<br />
third-place battle to finish<br />
28-8.<br />
It was not the finest showing<br />
for a team that had not<br />
lost two in a row all season.<br />
But when you look at the<br />
teams that didn’t make it to<br />
the final four – including<br />
teams from the powerful<br />
Chicago Catholic League<br />
Blue division, teams from<br />
the respected East Suburban<br />
Catholic Conference, downstate<br />
powerhouses such as<br />
Edwardsville and O’Fallon<br />
– the Eagles weren’t hanging<br />
their heads too much<br />
after accepting the fourthplace<br />
trophy.<br />
“I would say this was<br />
more positive than negative,”<br />
junior Tommy Windt<br />
said. “The season wasn’t a<br />
complete letdown because<br />
of this. We still took fourth<br />
place in the state.”<br />
“We all expected to<br />
come out and play better<br />
than we did,” senior Ryan<br />
Hampe added. “We left it<br />
all out there effort-wise. We<br />
made a couple of errors<br />
here and there, which cost<br />
us. But overall, we’re<br />
very proud of what we’ve<br />
done.’’<br />
This is the second topfour<br />
trophy for the baseball<br />
program and 62nd overall in<br />
school history and first since<br />
the competitive cheerleading<br />
squad took third place in<br />
2017. The only other baseball<br />
trophy was a Class AA<br />
championship in 2002. And<br />
there has been a ton of talent<br />
that passed through the<br />
Orland Park school since<br />
then.<br />
“We’re very proud of<br />
what we’ve accomplished<br />
and this is one of the better<br />
seasons we’ve had,” Hampe<br />
said.<br />
The semifinals started 3 ½<br />
hours late because of weather<br />
issues before the previous<br />
games and Plainfield scored<br />
seven runs in a three-inning<br />
stretch and the Eagles could<br />
not recover. They left eight<br />
runners on base.<br />
Hampe had three of Sandburg’s<br />
nine hits and Andrew<br />
Tenison drove in a pair of<br />
runs in the seventh inning.<br />
In the third-place game,<br />
the team scratched out just<br />
three hits left seven more<br />
men on base.<br />
To get to the semifinals,<br />
the Eagles won the Champaign<br />
Supersectional with a<br />
3-0 victory over O’Fallon as<br />
Illinois recruit Branden Comia<br />
drilled a solo homer in<br />
the first and pitched an inning<br />
of shutout relief in the<br />
seventh. Evan Tenuta had<br />
two hits including a triple<br />
and pitcher Seth Masters<br />
picked up the win with relief<br />
help from Tenison and<br />
Comia.<br />
O’Fallon was rated first in<br />
the most recent Prep Baseball<br />
Report rankings.<br />
Ian Sanders hugs coach Jim Morsovillo after Sandburg finished fourth in the state in Class<br />
4A on Saturday, June 9. PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA<br />
Sandburg’s Branden Comia and first-base coach Mark Peters have a laugh after Comia<br />
launched a fly ball to deep right field during.
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