SAUGET – Triad’s Travis Heilmann knew enough about GCS Ballpark, knowledge that helped him ignite a big second inning for the Knights Monday evening.
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“Everyone said it cleared the left-field wall; it was about window-high up there and about halfway past (a building behind left field),” Heilmann said of his solo homer in the bottom of the second that ignited a six-run outburst for Triad, an explosion that helped send the Knights to Friday’s IHSA Class 3A semifinals in Joliet against Chicago St. Ignatius Academy; the explosion helped give Triad an 8-0 win over Chatham Glenwood in Monday’s Class 3A Sauget Super-Sectional to put them into the state semifinals for the first time since 2012.
Friday’s game at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet, the home of the Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers, is scheduled for noon following Friday’s 10 a.m. semifinal game between Morton and LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy; the final is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, with the third-place game preceding it at 9 a.m.
“It’s a short fence over there, so I knew if I could raise the ball, I could probably get it out,” Heilmann said. “I wish I could get that ball back, but I don’t know if anyone’s retrieved that yet; I don’t know if you’ll ever find it, to be honest – it could be on the road. I don’t know if it’s landed yet, to be honest with you.”
That the Knights reached the state tournament is a big achievement for the Triad senior class. “It’s only the second time we’ve done it (get to the state semis); we’ve got a lot of seniors (including Heilmann) and it’s fun to play with these guys, so I’m happy for them,” Heilmann said. “We’ve got four great pitchers; I think we have a very good shot at winning on Friday and Saturday. The farther you get in the playoffs, the better the teams, but if we keep putting up a clean sheet on the defense and our pitchers keep throwing like that, it’s hard to beat us.”
The thought of reaching Joliet was something that was on Triad’s collective minds the entire season. “With our seniors, we’ve got a ton of power,” Heilmann said. “We can pretty much beat anybody and we know that; we come out here like that every day and we have the confidence to beat anybody in this class.
“Our coaches actually do a great job of scouting these teams, both in our area and Chicago; they do a great job putting a scouting report together and it helps a lot.”
