Trojans were one win away from state finals appearance.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The Timothy Christian baseball team made some history this past weekend.
The Trojans recorded a 7-2 victory over Chicago Holy Trinity to win the Class 2A IC Catholic Prep sectional title at Plunkett Athletic Complex in Elmhurst.
The win gave Timothy Christian its first sectional title in program history. The Trojans played fellow Metro Suburban Conference Red Division entrant Chicago Christian Monday in the Class 2A Benedictine University supersectional in Lisle. If Timothy won that game it will play in the Class 2A state semifinals this weekend in Peoria.
In the win against Holy Trinity, the Trojans put three runs on the board in the top of the first inning. Jimmy Allen tripled, Noah Marrera walked and Brian Schiff walked to load the bases. Allen scored on a wild pitch and Nick Huisman walked to reload the bases. Connor Gwaltney singled to drive in Marrera and Schiff.
Holy Trinity scored a run in their half of the inning, but Timothy answered when Josh Anderson singled sharply to center, advanced to second on Marrera’s second walk of the game and scored on a Joey Davidson single.
The Trojans tacked on three more runs in the top of the third. Gwaltney walked, Trent Marrera, running for Gwaltney, scored on Jonny Strube’s triple to left. Harrison Stanton walked and Allen doubled, driving in Strube and Stanton.
Schiff pitched a complete game, allowing two runs (1 earned), five hits and struck out four to earn the win.
Earlier, the Trojans were 11-0 winners against Chicago F.W. Parker in the semifinals at IC Catholic Prep. Schiff and Jakob Loerop combined to throw the shutout.
Timothy scored six runs in the bottom of the first on a triple by Anderson, a triple by Noah Marrera, a double by Gwaltney, a groundout by Strube and a single by Stanton.
The Trojans scored four more runs in the second. Anderson singled, Noah Marrera doubled, Davidson doubled, Schiff tripled and scored the final run of the inning on a single by Huisman. Timothy picked up one more run in the third. Allen doubled, moved to third on an error and scored on Davidson’s sacrifice fly.
Schiff was the winning pitcher. He went four innings and allowed one hit, while striking out four.
“It’s been fun,” said Timothy coach Jim Snoeyink. “We jumped out to a lead early again (against Holy Trinity). We’ve done that the last two games with some timely hitting early in the game. It helps when you score seven runs early. That was all we needed after three innings, which was nice to see.”
In the Holy Trinity win, Timothy had eight hits coming from seven different players. “We’re getting key hitting all the way through the lineup, which is big,” said Snoeyink.
The seven runs in the sectional championship game were scored by seven different players. “We’re getting a lot of contributions,” the coach said.
Snoeyink also was impressed with Schiff’s contributions in the two sectional games. “Brian Schiff has been great,” he said. “We jumped out to an early lead against Francis Parker and were able to get him out of there. I didn’t expect that he would throw a complete game against Holy Trinity. He kept competing and kept throwing strikes and getting groundballs. He pitched a great game. Right now, we’re getting good pitching, good defense and timely hitting and that’s why we are on a roll.”
Timothy moved to 19-10 with the win against Holy Trinity.
“We have a great group of guys who I really enjoy,” said Snoeyink. “They are having a good time. All we need to do is keep doing the good things—pitch well, timely hitting and play good defense.”
Timothy lost its two conference meetings to Chicago Christian earlier in the season by scores of 5-0 and 3-0—in a pair of games where each team had a combined eight hits in the two contests.
Timothy was a No. 3 seed in its sub-sectional, while Chicago Christian, which needed 11 innings to win its sectional title, was a No. 1 seed in its sub-sectional.
