TROY – Triad’s baseball team will be giving the ball to Mack Langdon at noon today when the Knights take on Chicago St. Ignatius College Prep when the two teams clash in a semifinal game of the 79th IHSA Baseball Championship at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet.
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The Knights enter the contest having defeated Chatham Glenwood in Monday’s Sauget Super-Sectional at GCS Ballpark by an 8-0 decision; the Wolfpack reached today’s game by eliminating Coal City 5-4 in Monday’s Crestwood 1 Super-Sectional at Standard Bank Stadium in the Chicago suburb.
Today’s winner takes on the winner of the 10 a.m. semifinal game today between LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy and Morton at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the third-place game preceding it at 9 a.m. Nazareth Academy reached their game today with a 10-9 win over Antioch in the Naperville Super-Sectional at North Central College while Morton defeated Stillman Valley 16-8 in nine innings in the Rock Island Super-Sectional at Augustana College.
“This is as big as it gets,” said Knight coach Jesse Bugger. “Saturday will be even bigger if we get to the final.”
St. Ignatius entered the postseason at 14-11 before going on a run to make today’s semifinal; the Wolfpack is at 19-11 while the Knights stand at 29-11 on the year. “We don’t know much about them,” Bugger said. “We’ll stay with what we do best and relax and enjoy the weekend and control the controllables.”
Langdon will get the call on the mound, with Zach Kraabel on call in relief; Langdon was 3-2 on the season with 14 appearances on the mound, 10 of them starting. He threw 58 innings with a 1.21 earned-run average and conceded 42 hits on the year, all singles, and struck out 69 hitters.
Friday’s forecast in Joliet is calling for a high of 83 degrees with clouds during the day, according to The Weather Channel; a stray shower or storm may be possible during the day. Saturday’s forecast is calling for afternoon and evening thunderstorms with a high in the upper 80s
“We’re all excited about the weekend,” Bugger said. “We’re going to be together for two more days and really enjoy the weekend.”
The game will be lived-streamed for a small fee on the IHSA website.
