Baseball: Joliet Catholic headed back to title game after overwhelming Quincy Notre Dame

PEORIA — Joliet Catholic coach Jared Voss likes his odds whenever T.J. Schlageter is on the mound.

So there was no question who’d be taking the ball in the Class 2A state semifinal game against Quincy Notre Dame on Friday night with a chance to send the Hilltoppers to the its second consecutive title game.

Schlageter, a Louisville commit, didn’t seem bothered by the burden, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finishing a complete-game effort with eight strikeouts as Joliet Catholic rolled to a 10-3 victory.

“The first one is always the toughest down here,” Voss said. “So the fact that we had TJ lined up in that situation was huge.

“So putting TJ in for three years now, he’s shown it over and over again, and he’s grown, and he’s a heck of a player, so it was nice to have him out there for game one.”

[ Photo Gallery: Joliet Catholic vs. Quincy Notre Dame Class 2A State Baseball ]

Joliet Catholic (25-8-1) will play for the 2A state championship at approximately 5:30 p.m. against Columbia (34-4). Columbia defeated DePaul Prep 9-0 in the tournament’s other semifinal game.

Joliet Catholic defeated Columbia 4-1 in the semifinal round of last year’s state tournament.

Joliet Catholic looked like it might blow the game open from the outset. The first three Hilltoppers reached after Tommy Kemp doubled, Trey Swiderski coaxed a walk and Jake Troyner got on after Quincy Notre Dame mishandled his sacrifice bunt.

But Quincy Notre Dame pitcher Jake Schisler nearly wiggled off the hook entirely, getting a strikeout and what appeared to be a tailor-made double-play ball. The Raiders’ throw to first went wild, which allowed both Kemp and Swiderski to score a pair of runs and take an early 2-0 lead.

“It was very important [to get those early runs] because what you do at the beginning game sets the tone,” Kemp said. “You get those early ones across the board and your whole dugout is up, and it gives you energy and it allows your whole team and it gives TJ a lot more room when we score early.”

Brett Hulbert extended the Joliet Catholic lead to 3-0 after Vinnie Spotofora coaxed a two-out walk and Hulbert split the gap in left-center and legged out a triple.

Schlageter rolled through the first four innings, facing just one above the minimum, and was helped along by consistently steady defense. Schlageter got two excellent defensive plays from Troyner at first base, snaring a leaping liner in the third and ranging deep into foul territory to record a putout in the fourth.

As a whole, the Hilltoppers provided stellar defensive backing.

“It felt like T.J. was K’ing everyone up, but we still had to make the plays behind him and play clean, and I felt like we did that,” Troyner said.

The Hilltoppers appeared close to turning the game into a runaway by stacking on two more runs in the fifth courtesy of a two-out single from Zach Pomatto.

But Quincy Notre Dame wouldn’t go quietly. Finally touching Schlageter for a hit when Nolan Robb rapped a one-out single in its half of the fifth, it seemed to spark the Raiders. Evan Kenning then drew a walk, and then Colin Kurk smashed a two-run double to get the Raiders on the board. After a groundout, Jake Schisler would pull QND to within 5-3 with a single.

“I just left the ball up, and they are a good-hitting team,” Schlageter said.

“I just want to give it all for Joliet Catholic and my brothers next to me. They’ve just given me so much, off the field, on the field. I just want to give it my all. So I went out there even though I might have been tired or a little sore, just go out there and go. It’s not about me. It’s about the big picture. So I just went out there and gave it my all one last time.”

Lots of Insurance for Joliet Catholic came in the form of a bases-loaded hit by pitch for pinch hitter Jose Granados, a two-run single for Kemp, his fourth hit of the game, and a two-run single from Zach Beitler that pushed the Hilltopper lead to 10-3 and allowed Schlageter to finish out the seventh inning with considerably less pressure.

Quincy Notre Dame, which dropped to 35-2 and had a 32-game winning streak snapped with the loss, is still grieving the loss of one of its key players, Tucker Tollerton, who was killed in a vehicle accident after the Raiders’ sectional championship victory.