Baseball: Schoon steals home for winning run in top of 7th as Sterling edges Freeport in regional semifinal

ROCHELLE – Just when it felt like the Class 3A Rochelle Regional semifinal was slipping away, the Sterling Golden Warriors got their act together.

With an offensive gamble that paid off in the top of the seventh inning, they retook the lead against the Freeport Pretzels. With a clutch defensive series in the bottom of the frame, they finished a 4-3 win Wednesday afternoon in Rochelle.

With two outs, runners on first and third, and the game tied 3-3 in the top of the seventh, the Warriors were desperate to get a run across – and were willing to gamble to make that happen.

That’s exactly what they did.

As junior Mason Smithee was up to bat, senior Gio Cantu got the sign to steal second base. At the sight of his coaches’ signal, Cantu took off, but the Freeport catcher made a throw to second, and he was caught between bases. As Cantu was chased back and forth between first and second, senior Ayden Schoon had a window of opportunity, and sprinted home from third base. After seeing Schoon take off, a Freeport defender threw the ball from second base to home, but the ball sailed high and the tag was a split-second late, allowing Sterling to go up 4-3.

“[Gio] got the sign – it was planned. We have a call for that,” Schoon said. “So our coach put the call down, Gio did his part, got into a pickle, and then as soon as I see him look away from me to throw the ball to the shortstop, Coach told me to get going, so I started running. I just slid down, got in, luckily it was a high throw, so I was able to get under it in time.”

“That sequence was planned, I did not get picked off,” Cantu added. “I just want to let everyone know.”

In the bottom of the seventh, sophomore pitcher Bryce Hartman finished the game off with the help of a double play. Sophomore Noah Summers drew a leadoff walk, then senior Mason Lei grounded a ball to senior Braden Hartman at third base. After a clean field of the low ground ball, Hartman fired the ball over to sophomore shortstop Drew Nettleton at second, then Nettleton fired it over to Smithee at first, completing the double play.

Bryce Hartman induced a flyout against junior Ryan Coon for the third out.

“I thought that was amazing. That double play really saved us in the end,” Schoon said. “I thought the defense did amazing all day long. We were making plays, only had like one error today; it was just a great day for us. And we were able to pull through and get the win.”

Freeport took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on sophomore Cam Verner’s two-out RBI single to right field.

But Sterling answered in the top of the fourth. Nettleton led off with a low line-drive single to shallow center field, then Cantu laid down a sacrifice bunt to get him over to second. Smithee grounded out next to get Nettleton to third, then sophomore Braden Birdsley reached on an error on a hard-hit ball to second, scoring Nettleton to tie the game 1-1.

Bryce Hartman worked a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth, striking out senior Carson Price for the third out.

“I just wanted to throw strikes, and I wanted to do this for my team, and especially for my brother [Braden], being a senior,” said Bryce Hartman, who pitched a complete game. “I really wanted this one for him. And I just wanted to do it for them.”

In the top of the fifth, Sterling took a 3-1 lead. Braden Hartman flew a one-out single to center field to start the rally, then Schoon flew a single to left field. Nettleton flew out to right field in the next at-bat, but Cantu followed with a two-out, two-run double deep to left, scoring Nick Capp (the pinch-runner for Braden Hartman) and Schoon.

“I was just swinging. I did not want to lose. I did not want to lose to this team again,” Cantu said about his approach on the critical at-bat. “And he put it right down the middle, it was perfect. Without the wind, I would say it was gone.”

“That double, it felt great because I was on a base and I was running all the way from [second],” Schoon said. “As soon as I heard it, I was just running as hard as I could, trying to get all the way home. It was great that he was able to get that down and hit that ball.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Freeport tied the game 3-3, capitalizing on back-to-back Sterling errors to get runners on base. Junior Coen Stewart grounded a ball to third base and reached on a high throw to first. Senior Maddux Shockey grounded another ball to third and reached on a bobble and low throw that sailed past first. Sophomore Zac Matz grounded out to short to score Stewart, then Verner grounded out to short to bring in Hayden Zumdahl (the courtesy runner for Shockey) for the tying run.

After sophomore Payton Woker ripped a double down the right-field line, Bryce Hartman induced a flyout from Price for third out to keep the game tied at 3-3.

Dylan Ottens, Braden Hartman, Schoon and Cantu had two hits apiece for the Warriors. Bryce Hartman earned the complete-game win, allowing three runs on three hits, striking out four with three walks.

Verner went 1 for 3 with two RBIs for Freeport. Cole Trickel pitched five innings for the Pretzels, allowing three runs on seven hits, striking out four with one walk. Lei pitched two innings of relief, allowing one run on three hits, striking out three with no walks.

“The wind blowing in was an equalizer. We did not get on base enough offensively, and missing barrels offensively, so that kept it pretty slow,” Freeport coach Shaun Dascher said. “Our top two arms, they’re pretty hard to beat, and they brought it today. It’s baseball, you never know what’s going to happen, and we get beat again. It’s kind of what it is.”

Sterling will play the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between Dixon and Burlington Central in Saturday’s regional championship at 2 p.m.