Yahoo Sports UPDATED: Columbia falls in IHSA Class 2A state championship game against Joliet Catholic
Columbia’s bid for a state championship fell one win short.
The Eagles lost to Joliet Catholic Academy 4-2 on Saturday, June 3, in the IHSA Class 2A state championship game at Dozer Park in Peoria.
Columbia fell behind 3-0 after an inning and trailed 4-0 before in the fourth before scoring a pair of runs to trim the deficit to 4-2. The Eagles had a chance to draw even closer in the fifth, putting runners at first and second with one out and the Nos. 2 and 3 hitters coming up.
However, Joliet Catholic escaped the inning and went on to the victory, limiting CHS to just two hits. Columbia finished the season at 34-5.
“Not getting anything right there ... that was the ballgame,” Columbia coach Neal O’Donnell said. “At a minimum, if we score another run there it changes the complexion of the game leading into the sixth and seven innings. Staring down a two-run deficit ... if you scratch out one run maybe it changes the way you look at things and turns the lineup over. We just weren’t able to turn the lineup over enough.”
O’Donnell praised Joliet Catholic while noting the difficulty presented from the immediate 3-0 deficit. He also said Joliet’s starting pitcher kept his team off balance and was able to consistently throw two different pitches for strikes.
“We got off to kind of a rough start and against a good team like that, it make things difficult,” he said. “I thought we settled down after that. When we scored to make it 4-2, that was big and we stopped them and never let them score again. I think we only had two hits ... the game was kind of won and lost with that. Against a good team like that, you have to score more runs or we at least needed to give ourselves more chances to score runs.
“Give credit to their pitchers. They did a good job. The kid that relieved their starter did a really good job. That’s baseball some days. It happens. Unfortunately, it happened in the state championship for us.”
O’Donnell now says goodbye to 14 seniors. Overall, during the past two years, the Eagles combined to go 61-13-1 while finishing third and second at state, respectively.
He undoubtedly will miss the entire group.
“Obviously we’re super proud of our guys,” said O’Donnell, whose team finished 27-8-1 in 2022. “To have 14 seniors and to have multiple guys who were with us during this two-year run ... I think we were looking at it and that we had 61 wins in the course of two years. On the field, we had a lot of success. But these were just a great group of kids and it was a real family atmosphere. They were just a fun group of guys to be around. When something like this ends, it’s definitely bittersweet.
“While we’re disappointed in the loss, thinking about the season as a whole, we have nothing to hang our heads about. This is definitely a group to celebrate.”
Departing seniors include Reed Drabant, Riley Etherton, Porter Fike, Aidan Gaither, Matt Hueman, Nick Janik, Tyler Rosecrans, Chase Schrader, Alex Schreckenberg, Jack Steckler, Dom Voegele, Brennan Weik, Zach Wetzel and Drake Wittenbrink.
Other quick notes
The team was honored during a parade/ceremony Sunday, June 4.
The Eagles had defeated Chicago DePaul College Prep High School 9-0 in the semifinals Friday.
The Columbia program previously won state titles in 1987 and 2007.
Quincy Notre Dame (36-2) defeated Chicago DePaul College Prep High School (23-16) 7-2 in the third place game earlier Saturday.
