A-H’s historic baseball season ends

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LENA – The greatest baseball season in Alden-Hebron’s history ended in heartbreaking fashion Saturday in the IHSA Class 1A Lena-Winslow Sectional championship game.

The Giants tied the score with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Lanark Eastland scored an unearned run in the first extra inning for a 4-3 victory. Eastland will play Dwight in the Benedictine University Supersectional on Monday in Lisle for the right to reach the state finals.

A-H earned the first baseball regional title and first sectional game win in school history and finished with a 22-5 record. Although the Giants felt as though they could have won Saturday’s game, coach Ken Winkelman said they should have no regrets.

“They can’t look back because they made history here,” he said. “We made the town proud.”

Starting pitcher Zak Engelbrecht kept A-H close, allowing three runs (one earned) in 52⁄3 innings before giving way to staff ace Mark Winkelman
(10-2), who took the hard-luck loss.

Freshman Shane Engelbrecht led the Giants’ offense, going 4-for-4 with a pair of solo home runs.

Class 3A Wheaton Academy Regional: At West Chicago, Glenbard South defeated Crystal Lake Central, 5-2, to win the regional title. Glenbard South will face Johnsburg in a Lakes Sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lake Villa.

Will Streit had an RBI, stole a base and scored a run for Central (17-17).

The Tigers thought they had taken a 3-2 lead in the fifth when Tony Castranova hit an apparent home run that Central coach Dan Badgley said cleared a church beyond the fence in left field, but the ball was ruled foul.

“It was fair by 10 feet,” Badgley said.

The Tigers trailed, 4-2, in the top of the sixth when they loaded the bases with no outs, but a double-play grounder back to the pitcher helped Glenbard South escape the inning without allowing a run.

“We had guys on base all day and just couldn’t come through,” Badgley said.

Class 3A Wauconda Regional: Kurt Schmidt and Angelo Gargano each homered as second-seeded Grayslake Central beat fourth-seeded Grayslake North, 17-7, in five innings to advance to the Lakes Sectional on Thursday to face Vernon Hills.

Matt Murphy struck out four to get the win for the Rams
(23-14). The Knights fell to 11-24.

Class 4A Larkin Regional: At Elgin, Scott Harm hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give third-seeded Larkin a 6-5 victory against fourth-seeded Dundee-Crown (8-24) in the regional final.

SOFTBALL

Class 3A Richmond-Burton Regional: Amanda Daly struck out 12, but third-seeded Johnsburg lost to top-seeded Antioch, 1-0, in 10 innings in the regional championship game.

Mary Chamberlain, Megan Becker and Melissa McDonald had hits for the Skyhawks
(15-18).

Class 3A Grayslake Central Regional: Monika Wedick threw a two-hit shutout, and third-seeded Grayslake Central defeated top-seeded Lakes, 1-0, to advance to the Marengo Sectional on Thursday against Antioch.

Kelly Silver doubled for the Rams (10-21).

• Tom Clegg and Andy Schmidt contributed to this report.