UPDATE: Gibault escapes 7th inning jam to advance to Class 1A state championship game

The Gibault baseball team now stands on the doorstep of a state championship.

The Hawks (23-14) defeated Goreville 7-6 on Friday in the IHSA Class 1A state semifinals at Dozer Park in Peoria and now will face Henry H.-Senachwine for the championship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

“I like our chances,” GHS coach Andy Skaer said Friday afternoon. “We’re kind of rolling now so I feel good about any opponent we’ll face.”

Junior Brady Biffar will take the mound for Gibault in the title game. Biffar is 3-0 this postseason and 4-4 overall with a 3.28 earned run average this spring. Opposing Biffar will be Lance Kiesewetter, who is 10-1 this season with a 1.33 earned run average while allowing just 33 hits and striking out 121 batters in 63 innings.

“They’ll have their stud pitcher going, so we’ll have our work cut out for us,” Skaer said. “But we’ve got Brady on the mound and he’s been good for us. I have a feeling it’ll be a low-scoring game, so hopefully we can scratch out a couple runs.”

Against the Blackcats, Gibault fell behind 1-0 after an inning but erupted for five tallies in the top of the second, thanks in part to Daniel Darin’s two-run double and Hudson Blank’s two-run homer.

“We had a big second inning,” Skaer said. “Like a lot of our big innings this season, it started with the bottom of the lineup.”

Goreville (25-14) clawed back to within 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth, but the Hawks increased the lead to 7-4 on starting pitcher Kameron Hanvey’s two-run double in the top of the sixth.

The score remained that way until the bottom of the seventh when things got dicey. The Blackcats cut the deficit to 7-6 and had first and second, two out. Skaer then replaced Hanvey with Darin, who walked the first batter he faced the load the bases. However, Darin fanned the next hitter to send GHS into the title game.

“They were very-very-very close to stealing the game from us,” Skaer said. “We had a double play in that inning that would have ended the game that we couldn’t finish. But Daniel shut the door and struck out the last batter on I think four pitches and that was all she wrote.”

Hanvey provided a gutty effort in sweltering conditions, scattering nine hits in 6 2/3 innings to earn the win. He fanned nine and allowed three earned runs while improving to 10-3.

Jack Keevan added an RBI as well.

The Hawks will be vying for their second state championship, having captured the Class 1A title in 2013 under Skaer. They also finished second in 2019.