SOUTH HOLLAND, IL – Matthew Torrez has some options.
That was proven again on Thursday when the Indian Hills Head Baseball Coach trotted out starting pitcher Charles Lefebvre in the opening round of the Midwest District play for the freshman’s first-ever postseason starting assignment, and all the right hander did is shut out Kaskaskia College out for five innings and came within an out of ending it in six innings. As it turned out, the Warriors (40-13) would finish off the Blue Devils, 16-5 in seven innings to advance to Friday’s semifinals against top-ranked Wabash Valley (52-3) for the right to move on to Saturday’s District finals.
Despite having at least three of the best arms in the Region in the stable and ready to go, Torrez opted to turn to Lefebvre, who had only 24 innings pitched on the season, and was 1-3 coming into play Thursday.
“Charles is a quality arm,” Torrez said. “I think we’ve talked a little bit about him being a guy who we were most excited about leaving the fall, but he just had a little bit of tenderness most of the year. We pitched him in the midweek a few times, and every time he rolls out, he gives us a chance. So, I think a lot of guys may have been surprised who we went with, but we’ve got some quality arms, so I’m ecstatic about the effort.”
Lefebvre had surrendered just one over the minimum through five frames on two hits as the Warrior offense was hitting on all cylinders racing out to a 13-0 advantage, and was poised to end it on the run-rule after their half of the sixth. IHCC took full advantage of host South Suburban College’s diminutive Bulldog Field by blasting five homeruns on the day as Tucker Ebest got the party started with a two-run blast in the first and Noel Perez and Ren Tachioka each had a pair of homers each to lead the Warrior offensive onslaught. In total, Perez had an incredible seven RBI day as the IHCC bats just kept battering the Blue Devil pitching.
Lefebvre seemed to tire a bit in the sixth; however, as he hit a pair of Blue Devils and a run scored on a passed ball to make it 13-1. With two outs, two one, and Kaskaskia down to their last out, Cade Kresin chased Lefebvre by lifting a three-run homer to center to extend play one more inning.
Dade Hensley would pitch the final four outs as each team would add more window dressing runs in the last frame to bring the final to 16-5. The win advanced the Warriors to Friday’s showdown with the NJCAA’s No. 1-ranked team in a battle of the “Warriors.”
“I think they're high quality baseball team that doesn’t seem to have too many holes in their lineup,” Torrez said. “You know they’ve got quality pitching on the mound, and we’ll try to go up there and give them our best effort and see what happens. I'm excited about our chances tomorrow.”
Game time is set for noon Friday back at Bulldog Field in South Holland, Illinois. A win would advance Indian Hills to Saturday’s 11 a.m. finals, and the Warriors would be in a situation where their opponent would be forced to defeat them twice to snatch away the District Title and bid to the JUCO World Series from them. A loss in today’s noon contest would force IHCC to play immediately again at 3 p.m. in an elimination contest. If the Warriors were able to survive that 3 p.m. contest, they would be forced to defeat Wabash Valley twice on Saturday to advance to the JUCO World Series.
“We're not gonna roll over for anybody,” Torrez said. “I am juiced about our club.”
MIDWEST DISTRICT SERIES
FIRST ROUND
Indian Hills 201 127 3 – 16 14 0
Kaskaskia 000 004 1 – 5 5 2
Charles Lefebvre, Dade Hensley (6) and Dave Janssen. Dawson Smith, Aelx Elsing (6), Trenton Schwerdt (6), Nate Philpot (7) and Bryce Zupan.
W – Lefebvre (2-3). L – Smith (4-5)
E – Alvarez, Elsing. LOB – IH: 4, KC: 1. DP: KC 1. 2B – Ebest, Perez, Alvarez. HR – Ebest, Perez 2, Tachioka 2, Kresin, Valdez. RBI – Castillo, Ebest 2, Fortier, Perez 7, Rodriguez, Tachioka 3, Kresin 3, Valdez. HBP – Janssen, Van Grieken, Hoel, Morrison. SB – Boucher 2, Castillo, Tachioka. CS – Alvarez.