Prep Sports Roundup: Triad advances to quarterfinals of IHSA Class 3A Baseball Championship

CENTRALIA – Triad’s baseball team has advanced to the quarterfinals of the IHSA Class 3A Baseball Championship.

The Knights eliminated Columbia Saturday morning thanks to a wild pitch that brought home Hunter Smith with the winning run in a 2-1, eight-inning win in the Class 3A Centralia Sectional final; Triad will meet Chatham Glenwood, 6-0 winners over Rochester in Saturday’s Decatur MacArthur Sectional final, at 4 p.m. Monday at GCS Ballpark in Sauget in the Sauget Super-Sectional, with the winner of Monday’s game taking on either Coal City or the Chicago Brooks Sectional winner, either sectional host Brooks or St. Ignatius (that sectional final was scheduled for Saturday night) from the Crestwood 1 Super-Sectional at Standard Bank Stadium (that super-sectional is set for 5 p.m. Monday) in a Class 3A state semifinal game at noon Friday at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet, with the final set for 11 a.m. June 9; the third-place game will precede the final at 9 a.m. that day.

Route 66 Stadium is the home of the Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers. The Knights advanced to Monday’s game with a 28-11 record; the Eagles were eliminated at 30-4.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the fifth when the Eagles’ Brennan van Breusegen scored on a Dylan Hildebrand sacrifice fly to Mack Langdon in center field; Triad tied the game in the bottom of the sixth when Josh Mesenbrink sent a pitch over the fence in center.

Smith got a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth to begin the winning rally and moved to second when Mesenbrink reached on an error to put runners at first and second; both advanced on a wild pitch before Zach Kraabel walked to load the bases. Smith then scored the winning run on a wild pitch to send Triad to Sauget.

Smith was 1-for-3 with the winning run scored for THS while Mesenbrink was 1-for-4 with the tying homer, an RBI and run scored; Kraabel was 1-for-3 and Nick Beeler also 1-for-3 for the Knights on the day. Kraabel got the win, striking out two in four innings of work; Langdon got the start and struck out seven in throwing 95 pitches over four innings.

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