At 4 p.m. on Friday the Homewood-Flossmoor High School varsity baseball team will try and move up a notch toward state tournament play when it takes on Providence Catholic High of New Lenox at home.
The Vikings beat No. 1 ranked sectional team Lincoln-Way East 9-6 on Wednesday advancing to super-sectional play. The winner of Friday’s game will next play in the state championship finals.
“Our entire team poured their hearts into the game and showed what true character was on Wednesday,” said head coach John McCarthy. “All the credit should go to these kids as beating a top-notch program like L-W East is no small task.”
The game opened with L-W East’s Griffins making the score 1-0 on a solo home run. When the Vikings had bases loaded, Dillon Head hit one that brought home two runners to make the score 2-1. The Vikings kept the lead after that with bunts, hits, great base running and stealing bases. By the 4th inning, the Vikings had run up the score 9-1.
L-W East finally found its rhythm with its third pitcher, but errors on the field were costly. The Griffins slowly earned runs, but the team never got close to H-F.
H-F pitcher Will Goldberg was outstanding on the mound, and Chad Readey was called up to close the game out.
“Will Goldberg and Chad Readey did a great job throwing strikes and keeping us in the game,” McCarthy said. “We used a small ball approach to set up our big inning and our kids did a tremendous job executing.
“Our kids did a great job staying with it. Playoff baseball is not always pretty and our kids did a great job managing their emotions and staying present. I’m proud of our group stepping up and playing hard,” the coach added.