Baseball: Two-time defending state champ Edwardsville knocks out Downers Grove North

BLOOMINGTON — Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

That is unless you’re Edwardsville and you’ve been undefeated in the IHSA baseball playoffs for three years.

Downers Grove North was Edwardsville’s latest victim, 19th straight in the playoffs, as the Trojans saw their magical season filled with great success come to an end against the Tigers with a 7-1 loss Monday in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan supersectional.

The Trojans (30-7), who won their first sectional championship in 20 years after winning the West Suburban Silver title, were held to just two hits and none in the middle five innings.

“We knew going in we were going against Edwardsville and kind of the aura they had, and kudos to them, they did everything well,” Trojans coach Kyle Briscoe said. “They hit the ball well, they gloved it for the most part and their sophomore (pitcher Chase Milburn) did a really nice job of keeping us off-balance the whole time.”

And did it efficiently. His lone walk came in the first inning after the Trojans had just scored. He’d only need 71 pitches while striking out four.

“I think going into the last inning he was only at like 60 or 62 pitches,” Briscoe said. “I didn’t even want to take a strike (in the top of the seventh inning) even though that’s the book rule because he had only thrown 60 pitches through six innings.”

Jude Warwick, who had homered in two straight games, including a walk-off to beat Waubonsie Valley in Saturday’s sectional final, nearly got the Trojans started with another long one. Warwick doubled off the fence on the game’s second pitch, stole third and then scored on Jimmy Janicki’s quality ground out to first.

That’s all the offense the Trojans would generate, though. Milburn retired 11 straight batters before JD Cumbee reached on an error with one out in the fifth. Edgar Santos followed with a bullet that was snared at third and Russ Oros got caught looking with Cumbee in scoring position.

Warwick led off the sixth with a liner towards right but second baseman Hunter Bough had the web gem of the game, rising high to capture it in leather. It was one of four innings where the Trojans went down in order.

Brady Schallmoser’s bloop single to center to open the seventh inning accounted for the Trojans’ lone other hit. Milburn retired the next three he faced to finish any hopes of a rally while sending his team on to another a state weekend.

“I feel like we were ready to play, but it’s baseball,” Janicki said. “You can’t play your best every game. That’s just the sad part about it.”

Last season Milburn pitched only about five innings. Now the sophomore is 9-0 and a key reason why the Tigers are going to state again. The Trojans, like the past 18 teams that have gotten in Edwardsville’s postseason path, ran into a juggernaut.

“Coming in we knew they were going to be fundamentally sound and do everything right,” Briscoe said. “Kudos to them for taking care of business.”

Downers Grove North ace Ben Llewellyn wasn’t as sharp as he’s been, but soldiered on.

In the second inning, he was taken deep by Greyson Rathgeb to tie the game at 1-1 and then allowed a sharp single to Bryce Beyers to begin another potential rally. With one out, Janicki threw out Evan Poynter trying to steal second, but Llewellyn then walked Edwardsville’s eighth and ninth hitters, Logan Porter and Mace Karnes. A wild pitch put the runners in scoring position and leadoff man Kolton Wright fouled off a couple 3-2 pitches before Llewellyn got him to fly out.

Llewellyn wouldn’t be as fortunate in the third inning. He walked Lucas Krebs on four pitches to start the inning. Lucas Huebner followed with an infield hit. Llewellyn got the next two he faced, but a 3-2 fastball to Bryce Beyers turned into a three-run homer and a 4-1 game.

“He did well enough,” Briscoe said. “Being on four days rest we didn’t know how sharp he was going to be. He said the fourth day he’s usually good to go and he’s our senior and has been our horse all year long. I feel like we tried to ride him.”

The Tigers added a pair of runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to extend their lead.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

“It’s high school baseball and it’s supposed to be fun,” Janicki said. “I’m so proud of our guys. We won conference and we made a huge run in the playoffs. We read a few Twitter posts and one said we’re pretenders. I think we shocked everyone wrong.”