Baseball: Youth is served as Lemont earns Class 3A state tournament berth

CRESTWOOD – It took awhile for a relatively young Lemont squad to find itself.

With only a handful of seniors and new players at almost every position, Lemont was one game above the .500 mark through its first 13 games this season.

But along the way Lemont found its identity, and now its becoming a matter of whether it will be stopped at all. Lemont earned its place in the state tournament’s final four with a 4-3 victory over De La Salle in the Class 3A Crestwood Supersectional.

The win lifts Lemont (29-9) into the 3A semifinals against Highland at 1 p.m. Friday at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet.

The De La Salle victory was the last in a string of three Chicago Catholic League schools Lemont needed to topple in order to reach the state tournament, as advancing out of the sectionals required wins over a highly touted St. Laurence squad and another over St. Rita.

“I’m not going to say it came out of nowhere because it was always there,” Lemont coach Brian Storako said. “But the way the season started, I guarantee I wasn’t thinking it was going to be like this. We didn’t start out very hot, and now we got hot at the right time.

“We talk about how you don’t win championships in April, you win them in May and June. So you got to keep grinding it out and keep working and hopefully it clicks at the right time.”

Early on it looked as if Lemont’s magical run may get shut down one step short. Lemont starter Matt Devoy struggled with his control, walking six over two-plus innings, which allowed De La Salle to put up three early runs despite collecting only one hit off Devoy.

That gave De La Salle a 3-1 lead, and reliever Donovan Moleski was charged with making sure the deficit didn’t get any bigger for Lemont, which also hadn’t been swinging the bats with force.

Moleski was up to the task, however, fencing in the De La Salle offense for two hits and a walk the rest of the way.

“I know what our team has been through this season, and we’ve always had each other’s back,” Moleski said. “I had a rough start to the season, and everyone else had my back. When I couldn’t throw strikes early in the year, my coach and my teammates had my back. So when I had to come in for Matt, who has been great all year but struggled to find the zone a little bit today, I had his back today.”

Lemont’s offense finally broke through in the fifth inning. An RBI single from Noah Tomaras got things going, then Matt Devoy’s single, coupled with one of two errors the Meteors would commit in the inning, allowed Lemont to tie the score at 3.

The second of those two errors would turn Shea Glotzbach’s single into Glotzbach standing on third, but more importantly it drove home Devoy with the go-ahead run.

“Every game we’ve gotten away with a lot of stuff. Today we got through that pitcher, saw him a little bit and wore him out a lot just working counts and stuff,” Glotzbach said. “It gives us a lot of confidence. Why stop now? Just keep going.”

After being handed a lead, Moleski successfully protected it. He did allow a leadoff single to Esteban Franco in the sixth, and Franco managed to get over to third on a sacrifice bunt and an infield grounder, but Moleski left him there by inducing another groundout.

In the seventh, Dasaan Lee coaxed a two-out walk for De La Salle, but Lemont clinched its trip to state when Max Michalak scooped up a grounder to second and threw out Angel Castro.