Baseball: Providence wins 8-inning thriller over Mount Carmel to advance to state

CRESTWOOD – It was easily one of the softest hit balls of the game.

And for Providence’s Jackson Smith it might have been one of his softest hit balls all season.

But circumstances matter, and after Providence loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning and with Chicago Mount Carmel’s defense drawn in, Smith’s softly hit blooper barely cleared the infield but found a patch of grass and with it an RBI single that lifted Providence to a 3-2 win in the Class 4A Crestwood Supersectional on Monday night.

“Baseball is a funny game,” Smith said. “The balls I hit the worst were the two hits I got. That’s just how baseball is, and I’m glad I made contact with it because that’s what you have to do in that situation.”

Providence (31-8) will face two-time defending state champion Edwardsville (32-8) at 4 p.m. Friday in a Class 4A semifinal at Duly Health & Care Field in Joliet. Edwardsville defeated Downers Grove North 7-1 at the Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional.

The two Chicago Catholic League teams stood deadlocked at 2 through 7½ innings, but Eddie Olszta got things going in the right direction for Providence by lashing a double down the third base line. Blake Jenner promptly drew a walk, and Mitch Voltz bunted Olszta and Jenner up one base.

That left Mount Carmel with a difficult decision. Imposing Providence leadoff hitter Enzo Infelise, who already crushed an RBI triple that just barely missed leaving expansive Ozinga Field in the third inning, was due up next. The Caravan didn’t want anything to do with Infelise and elected to give him an intentional pass to load the bases.

With one out, Mount Carmel brought the infield in so it could try to cut down the potential game-winning run at the plate with any sharply hit ball on the infield.

“When we had first and second I said we are going to sacrifice Mitch [Voltz] here, and I knew they were going to walk Enzo, but that’s why Smitty hits behind Enzo. Because its like, OK, well now the bases are loaded and I’ll take my chances with him. It was the right spot for us,” Providence coach Mark Smith said.

The game quickly evolved into a pitchers’ duel between Mount Carmel’s Ian Tosi and Providence’s Nate O’Donnell.

Each had one misstep.

For Tosi, his issue came in the third. Jenner crushed a double into the left field corner and Infelise hit a rocket to deep center field that nearly left the park for a triple and scored Jenner from second. Smith chased home Infelise on a sacrifice fly to put Providence up 2-0.

Mount Carmel answered right back in the fourth. Kolin Adams rapped a double to lead off the inning. After a groundout moved him over to third, T.J. McQuillan and Anthony Chavez worked back-to-back walks off O’Donnell to load the bases. James Nydegger then brought Adams and McQuillan home with a single to knot the game at 2.

O’Donnell gave way to Cooper Eggert in the seventh. Eggert retired the Caravan in order in the seventh. Despite hitting the Mount Carmel No. 9 hitter with a pitch in the eighth, he bounced back quickly by recording back-to-back strikeouts to allow Providence to get its bats back on the attack.

“I was amped for the opportunity,” Eggert said. “When I hit that kid, I was the most calm that I’ve ever been the whole season. I felt powerful. And that’s what I wanted to do, and I live for those moments. It’s survive and advance, especially if they are a CCL team, too. So we beat them twice this year, and they put up a good fight, but we got them.”

Providence was in a good place for a low-scoring game with an arsenal of capable arms at the ready.

“We were comfortable with what we had available to pitch,” Mark Smith said. “With having Nate, and I think we were hoping to get get five and then we were able to get six. But he was at that 85-pitch mark and that’s kind of where we’ve kind of cut them off, but we knew we had Coop for that many pitches if we really needed him and we had Enzo available as well. From the pitching standpoint, we felt good about where we were at. We knew that we just had to hit.

“That was as good as a baseball game at the high school level as you will see.”