Lyons Township Baseball Team Takes Second in State

The Lyons Township baseball team’s storied rivalry with Oak Park-River Forest reached its ultimate moment Saturday.

The West Suburban Conference Silver Division foes were meeting for the Class 4A state championship at Silver Cross Field in Joliet in front of 2,858 fans.

On Monday, LT coach George Ushela had texted OPRF coach Chris Ledbetter with congratulations on winning and advancing to the Class 4A state semifinals, even before the Lions had earned their trip later that night. 

Text messages continued throughout the week and even Friday, when both teams won in the state semifinals.

“Before the game, Chris and I said, ‘Hey, let’s have another special game,’ ” Ushela said. “One of us was going to be first, and one of us was going to be second. It was special.”

The Lions nearly completed their season with a rare back-to-back state championship, but the Huskies pushed across a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win a 4-3 drama-filled thriller.

OPRF senior center fielder Michael Brennan, who struck out each of his three previous at-bats, lined the first pitch from LT’s Steve Heilenbach into right field with the bases loaded to score Purdue-bound senior catcher Jack Picchiotti with no outs to bring in the winning run. Picchiotti led off with an opposite-field triple down the right-field line, and the Lions (27-13-1) intentionally walked the next two hitters to create a force situation at home.

LT had just tied the game 3-3 in the sixth and had an almost sure go-ahead run thwarted when Stewart Nelson intended to score from second on Evan Booth’s two-out single to left field but inadvertently collided with OPRF third baseman Colin O’Brien and remained at third. Heilenbach then popped out and the score remained tied.

While the Lions tried to become only the second team ever to win the single-class or largest-class state baseball championship in consecutive seasons, the Huskies (30-9-1) captured their first state title since 1981 under legendary coach Jack Kaiser.

LT had won two of the teams’ three regular-season games in Silver play. Ledbetter is a 1988 OPRF graduate who played for Kaiser and served as an assistant coach under him before Kaiser died just prior to the 2000 season.

“I’m glad they got a taste of (winning the state title). They’re on Cloud Nine right now, like we were last year,” Ushela said. “We just kind of have a little sour taste in our mouth because of the controversy with the call.”

Members of LT’s second-place state tournament roster were seniors Ryan Bode, Evan Booth, Tom Brannen, Scott Galka, Steve Heilenbach, Blake Kopach, Colin Lucas, Blake Murray, Matt Robare and Brad Taylor and juniors Matt Aikens, Zach Carlson, Tim Goldrick, Madison Hunter, Keith Lehmann, Mike Lorenz, Doug Miller, Luke Nelson, Stewart Nelson, Jim Pavlik, Kevin Pikul, Tom Prescott, Adem Rexhepi, Mitchell VanKoevering and Alex Vannucci.

The Lions came ever so close to completely overcoming the odds in many respects this season.

Since the state baseball tournament started in 1940, there have been 118 state champions. Only three teams ever have won back-to-back titles – Maine Township in 1958-59 and Stanford Olympia (2007-08) and Teutopolis (2009-10) -- both in Class 2A and since the tournament was changed to four classes in 2008. No team repeated during the two-class tournaments from 1978 to 2007.

The Lions were dominant throughout 2011, winning the program’s third state championship and second under Ushela with a 37-4 record. However, they only returned three starters – Heilenbach, Lehmann and Taylor, who played catcher but rarely batted – and Booth, Brannen and Robare were the only other underclassmen on the state tournament roster. Booth appeared in both of last year’s state finals games as a pinch-runner.

“The best part of being at the stadium (at state) is a true hop every time. You never play on a field this flat, and just being out there with all of the fans,” Booth said. “Usually we just have our families out at the games, and that’s it. Playing in front of these huge crowds is awesome.”

This season, the Lions were 6-4-1 after their first 11 games, as well as 11-6-1 and 13-7-1, but soon found their groove initially with strong pitching. Lehmann (10-2) and Heilenbach (5-5) returned from the 2011 starting rotation, and Robare (7-2) was in an expanded starting role.

After scoring eight or more runs only three times in their final 18 regular-season games, the Lions scored at least eight in each of their first four playoff victories before edging Marist 3-2 in the Crestwood Super-Sectional. LT defeated Minooka 6-2 in the state semifinals.

“They came around and competed well the last 3 1/2 weeks of the season,” Ushela said. “Our goal was to play well today (in the state championship game), and I felt we played well. They did, too. At least there weren’t goats in uniforms, which is special for the kids.”

Both teams had seven hits Saturday. Booth, Heilenbach and Taylor each were 2 for 4 with doubles, Heilenbach and Taylor and Nelson had RBIs, and Lehmann, Booth and courtesy runner Pikul scored runs.

The Lions twice nearly pushed across another run late in the game.

Ushela said obstruction was called on the play in which Nelson was intending to score from second base, but since he had not yet touched third he only was awarded that base. Nelson’s two-out single had scored pinch-runner Pikul after Taylor hit a leadoff double, and Nelson stole second during the first pitch to Booth.

On Booth’s single, OPRF left fielder Matt McCormack immediately fired home to Picchiotti for a play at the plate, but Nelson was sprawled on the basepath after tripping over a backpedaling O’Brien. Ushela also serves as the Lions’ third-base coach.

“(Nelson) just got third base. He’s going to get there. He’s scoring easy (otherwise),” Ushela said. “Yes, (McCormack) was coming hard for the ball.  (But) I can’t believe that he doesn’t get awarded the plate. (Not scoring that run) changed a lot of the strategy of the game, and it’s sad that it happened on this stage.”

The Lions nearly took the lead in the seventh when Robare’s fly ball with one out was dropped by McCormack, and Robare advanced to third on a wild pitch. Running on contact, Robare tried to score on Prescott’s grounder to shortstop Dan Shinsako, but after momentarily bobbling the ball, Shinsako threw out Robare at the plate.

Both pitchers went the distance. OPRF senior and Seton Hall-bound Zachary Weigel (7-1) struck out four, walked two and hit one batter. Weigel also stranded nine runners, eight over the last four innings after LT had only one runner reach base over the first three innings on an infield error.

Heilenbach had five strikeouts, four walks, two hit batters and stranded seven runners over the first six innings.

Weigel avenged his only pitching loss this season, 4-2 against LT May 11. LT lost to the Huskies 5-2 May 9 and won the first meeting 6-0 May 2 behind the pitching of Lehmann – LT’s last of nine shutouts this season.

“I wanted the ball in (Weigel’s) hand, there’s no doubt about it,” Ledbetter said. “He and Joe McKune (7-2 pitching record) have carried us all month. There was no reason to believe that they weren’t going to continue that.”

OPRF won four of its seven playoff games by one run, including 1-0 over Highland Park in the Rockford Super-Sectional before beating Grant 8-2 Friday. Grant (26-12) took third place Saturday with a 7-1 victory over Minooka (27-15).

LT and OPRF met for only the second time in a state tournament setting Saturday. In the 2001 Class AA state semifinals, the Huskies won 14-4 in six innings and went on to take second and LT fourth.

2001 was the first season for Ushela and Ledbetter as varsity head coaches at the respective schools. Ushela replaced the retired Terry Sullivan after six seasons as his assistant coach.

“So much mutual respect, so much wanting to compete against the best, and year in and year out, it’s (Lyons Township). They’re at the top of the list when you look at teams you know are going to be competitive and make a run,” Ledbetter said.

“I don’t put a lot in the rankings, but when I saw where they were going for the sectionals (Mt. Carmel), I was thinking, ‘A lot of teams are not going to like the new addition to the sectionals because they will always compete. They never get rattled. They play the game the right way.”

Still, LT (13-5) and OPRF (12-6) finished second and third in the Silver behind York (14-4). In the winner-take-all conference finale, LT lost to York 7-1 May 15. The Dukes lost in the York Regional semifinals to Schaumburg, which lost to Grant in the super-sectionals.

“Neither of us won the conference, so what does that say (about the Silver)? But I think I’m going to stick with the trophy we’ve got today,” Ledbetter said with a smile.

“I have the utmost respect for George. We talked before the game. We’ve been texting back and forth. We even texted last night, just saying we need to go out and show people how rivals are supposed to compete against each other.”

That was proven Saturday. The Huskies took a 1-0 lead in the third on a two-out triple by Picchiotti to score O’Brien, who was hit by a pitch.

LT came back to tie the game in the fourth as Taylor dove across first base to beat out his grounder to deep short. The infield single scored Lehmann, who reached on a fielder’s choice after Heilenbach singled and advanced to third following a walk to Robare and force at second base. Lorenz was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but a flyout ended the inning.

The Lions pulled ahead 2-1 in the fifth on back-to-back one-out doubles by Booth and Heilenbach. Booth’s hit was a ground-rule double that bounced over the left-field wall.

OPRF then took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth after Weigel singled and Picchiotti was hit by a pitch. Wild pitches while Nick Kowalczuk was drawing a walk allowed Weigel to score and Picchiotti to reach third. Alex Rice singled home Picchiotti for the go-ahead run, but Heilenbach then came through with a called strikeout against Brennan and McCormack grounded into a force by third baseman Lehmann.

After the game, the Lions were disappointed but gradually realizing their impressive achievement. As they posed for pictures along the first-base line, Booth hustled to the dugout to appropriately grab the blue-and-gold Lyons Township Pride sign that has accompanied them every step of the playoff run.

“The word pride means a lot to our school and our program. Pride’s a family of lions and we really take pride in our school and our community,” Booth said. “It’s something I’ll always bring with me, even next year in college (at Wisconsin). I’ll always be proud of my LT baseball family.”

State semifinals

Lehmann pitched a complete-game five-hitter and was 2 for 3 with an RBI as Lyons Township defeated Minooka 6-2 in Friday’s Class 4A semifinals.

Lehmann allowed two earned runs with five strikeouts and three walks. Nelson had a two-run single in the third, and designated hitter Murray scored twice.

The Lions never trailed and scored in each of the first three innings to take a 4-1 lead. The Indians closed to 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth, but LT added two runs in the fifth. Minooka committed four errors, contributing to five unearned LT runs.

Nelson’s two-run single scored pinch-runner Pikul and Lorenz. Taylor was hit by a pitch and Lorenz reached base on catcher’s interference.

Murray led off the fifth on a triple and scored when Nelson reached on an error. Nelson later scored on Lehmann’s single.

Booth’s RBI double in the second scored Murray, who was hit by a pitch. Pinch-runner Brannen scored in the first on an infield error with two outs after Lehmann and Robare singled and Prescott walked to load the bases.