High school sports roundup: Ryan Sublette dominates for Lemont in baseball regional final

LEMONT – The radar gun numbers for Lemont senior right-hander Ryan Sublette were telling.

Sublette, a Texas Tech commit, said the hardest he had thrown previously this season was 92 mph. But in the May 27 Class 3A regional championship game against Joliet Catholic, he was clocked at 92 to 94 the entire way. He struck out Jared Cushing on a 94 mph heater to conclude a 3-0 victory.

“I felt pretty good,” Sublette said with a smile. “Maybe it’s because there were a lot of people here. I was amped up. It was awesome.”

Of course, velocity is not the be all and end all. Hitting spots matters just as much, or more.

Sublette, who struck out 10 and walked one in a complete-game one-hitter, lived on the outside corner, especially at the knees.

“We pounded the outside corner the whole game,” he said. “But I was really bad at throwing first-pitch strikes. I was getting the first pitch to batters up high.”

Still, Sublette threw 64 of his 93 pitches for strikes. The only baserunners for JCA came on Michael O’Brien’s leadoff double in the fourth and a two-out walk to Matt Bebar in the fifth.

“We ran into a great pitching performance,” JCA coach Jared Voss said. “You have to tip your cap to Sublette. It was the way he was able to hit his spots. And it’s not only his velocity, but he hides the ball so well. He worked the knees all day.”

Sublette (11-1) allowed nine earned runs in a loss to Providence earlier in the season, which proved to be a turning point.

“He got lit up against Providence when he was falling behind,” Lemont coach Brian Storako said. “There must be something about what happened that day because since then he has been lights-out.”

Lemont senior right fielder KC Simonich, also a Texas Tech recruit who played at JCA until transferring for his senior year, said he could not decipher any increase in Sublette’s velocity “because with Ryan, you never can tell because he just dominates. He does what he does.”

After Sublette set the tone by striking out the side in the top of the first, Lemont went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the inning. Angel Salinas (walk) scored on Sublette’s groundout.

Lemont tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the third with two outs. Salinas singled, Simonich walked and Sublette was hit by a pitch. Nate Madej dropped a soft single along the right-field line to knock in Salinas and Simonich to make it 3-0.

Unfortunately for the Indians, who won the 2014 and 2016 Class 3A state tournaments, they fell 5-2 against Oak Forest in a semifinal of the Ottawa sectional May 31. Dom Connolly and Marcus Ambroziak each scored an unearned run for Lemont (30-6), which saw Oak Forest score twice in the third to take the lead for good before adding insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Boys track and field

Sophomore David Lehenbauer returned from the Class 3A state meet with a sense of accomplishment.

Lehenbauer cleared 6 feet, 4 inches in the high jump prelims May 26 to set a personal record and move on to the finals. He finished 15th in the state with a 6-3 mark in the May 27 finals.

“I felt I was kind of tired from [prelims]. Six-4 is kind of high for me,” said Lehenbauer, who improved his personal record from 5-9 as a freshman to 6-4 this year.

“Legs were kind of sore a little bit [in the finals]. That was my goal, to get to finals, so I’m pretty happy.

“Just for the next couple of years if I can make it down, it’s a great experience [at state]. I enjoyed it. It was good.”

Girls soccer

The Indians knocked off host Hinsdale South 1-0 in a Class 2A supersectional May 30 in Darien. Lemont (20-1-4) is back in the state semifinals for the fifth time (all since 2009) and will face Wheaton Academy, last year’s Class 1A champion, in a state semifinal at 11 a.m. June 2.

Softball

Kylie Mooney went 2 for 4 with two doubles, a run and two RBIs, and Haley Ercoli was 2 for 3 with a double, run and RBI in Lemont’s 10-0 win against Washington in a Class 3A regional final May 27.

Nina Mardjetko struck out three and allowed just one hit for the pitching win.

In a sectional semifinal at Nazareth on May 31, the Indians scored six times in the sixth inning for a 6-3 win against Evergreen Park. Lemont will play Nazareth in the sectional final at 11 a.m. June 3.

Boys tennis

Arjun Reddigari in singles and Faraz Longi and Peter Rogers in doubles went 2-2 at the Class 1A state tournament.

Charles Balisalisa in singles and the duo of Luke Pawlak and Matas Maleiska in doubles posted 1-2 records at state.

Correspondent Bill Stone contributed to this report.