Baseball | St. Laurence gets 30th win, but falls to Nazareth in sectional final

By Steve Millar
Correspondent

St. Laurence got a big boost early from a reliable source in its sectional semifinal against Oak Forest.

Senior outfielder Luke Stulga ripped his eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot that sailed over the left-field wall in the first inning.

The Vikings never looked back from there, cruising to a 7-0 win the Bengals in a Class 3A Marist Sectional semifinal in Chicago on June 1.

“I think that’s huge,” Stulga, an Illinois State recruit, said of the early momentum. “Something I believe is that your first at-bat of the day can tell you a lot about how the rest of your day is going to go. Once I got that swing off, I was feeling confident and I knew I’d be seeing the ball well the rest of the way.”

Stulga added a single and a triple, going 3-for-3 with three runs and two RBI. Senior catcher Johnny Wendling drove in three runs and Evan Les had an RBI triple for second-seeded St. Laurence (30-9).

The victory ended up being the final one of the season for the Vikings, who fell 11-1 to Nazareth in six innings in the sectional championship game June 3.

Against Oak Forest (25-11), Stulga set the tone.

“That was big by Luke in the beginning,” Wendling said. “We were seeing his pitches well and we were talking about how he was throwing to us. After I got my first swing under my belt, I was confident I would come up big in my next one. I tried to put a good swing on it with runners in scoring position and it happened.”

What happened was Wendling ripping a two-run single in the third inning to make it 4-0.

Les produced an RBI triple and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth, while Stulga capped his big day in the fifth, tripling and scoring on Wendling’s sacrifice fly to make it 7-0.

“Luke’s really done it all year for us,” St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus said. “He’s such a good player and such a good athlete. He hits home runs, he hits triples, he steals bases. He does everything on the baseball field.

“For him to get us on the board in the first was huge. Luke is a special player. When he does stuff like that, I think our guys really got going. Luke’s kind of our leader, emotionally.”

Sophomore Joe Olson made sure those runs would be way more than enough. The left-handed Louisville recruit tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing just one hit. He struck out nine and walked one.

“Just taking it step by step really works out well,” Olson said. “Take it slowly. Everything happens really fast, but I try to take control of it.”

For the second straight year, the Vikings’ season ended with a sectional championship game loss to Nazareth, the defending Class 3A state champion.

Wendling and freshman third baseman Daniel Coyle had the only two hits for St. Laurence, a double for Wendling and a single for Coyle. Senior outfielder Tyler Radosevich was hit by a pitch and scored on a passed ball for the Vikings’ only run.

Senior DJ Helwig, a Notre Dame recruit, struggled in the final start of a tremendous St. Laurence career. He allowed six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Senior Richard Gomez had a solid relief outing, allowing two earned runs on three hits in 3 1/3 innings.