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PERU – During one of the most drawn-out intentional walks in baseball history, Burbank American Senior League All-Star No. 8 hitter Zach Kosnichski stood patiently in the on-deck circle, plenty of time to think about coming up with the bases loaded and two outs in the final inning of a tie game for the Senior League Central Region championship.
It didn’t take him nearly as long to deliver the game-winning hit.
Kosnichski sent the third pitch he saw from Southern Little League reliever Luke Bertke into center field, scoring Ahmad Sabra with the winning run of a come-from-behind 7-6 victory for Illinois’ state champs over Michigan’s.
“I just went up there with a clear mind, ready to hit the ball,” Kosnichski said. “All our fans and all my friends all knew it was going to happen.”
Burbank American – which led most of the championship game until Southern stacked back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth to take a 6-4 lead – advances as the Central Region’s representative in the Senior League World Series in Easley, S.C. To do so, the Illinois champions had to put up a three-spot of their own in the bottom of the seventh.
After Jake Robitz’s two-out, two-run single tied the game 6-all, Southern elected to intentionally walk Burbank American No. 7 hitter Gio Smith to load the bases for Kosnichski. To that point, Kosnichski was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts and had been pinch-hit for in the fourth inning.
After a prolonged conversation about whether Michigan pitcher Boaz Schaffer had to actually throw for the intentional walk – he did – Schaffer (loss, 4 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 5 K) was pulled for Bertke, who took his warmups while Kosnichski waited again.
Three pitches later, Kosnichski lined the walk-off single to center, scoring Sabra and making a winner of Burbank American’s Tino Villagomez (2 IP, 3 ER, 1 K), who came on in relief of starter Miguel Gonzalez (5 IP, 1 ER, 7 K).
“A storybook ending for us, exactly how we’d hoped it would end,” Burbank American manager Juan Castellanos said. “It could have been a little less tight, but you know, we’ll take it.
“Zach, I’m so happy for him. Every guy in the lineup, I never have a worry that they won’t put the ball in play, Zach included. So when they walked [Smith], I felt we had the right guy in the right spot.
“I love it. That kid’s going to remember that hit the rest of his life.”
Villagomez (3 for 3, three runs scored) and Gonzalez (two-run double) were Burbank American’s offensive stars before first Robitz’s and finally Kosnichski’s seventh-inning heroics.
Shaffer delivered the two-run double in the sixth that put Southern ahead, albeit briefly.
The Illinois and eventual Central Region champions earned their berth in the title game by defeating the host District 20 team – which received an automatic bid to the tournament as the hosts but had to earn its date in Wednesday morning’s semifinals with a Tuesday upset of top-seeded Kentucky, 10-5, at Washington Park.
The local La Salle-Peru team fell behind, 6-0, through four innings but showed plenty of fight with a five-run fifth behind Jacob Gross’ 345-foot, two-run homer and Aidan Mullane’s two-run double.
Burbank American wound up being out-hit by District 20, with Brady Backes and Drew Carlson handling the pitching duties for the local 16U All-Stars.
“We played another solid game against the now regional champion.” District 20 manager Ray Urbanski said. “The District 20 team got better every practice and every game. Their parents, family, friends and community should be proud of how they represented our area.”