Lemont’s Ferry fans 11 in win over Sandwich

Updated: May 27, 2011 10:17PM

It didn’t matter that Lemont starting pitcher Josh Ferry was dominant in Friday afternoon’s semifinal against Sandwich in the Tinley Park Class 3A Regional.

Ferry was upset about a fifth-inning balk that allowed the only Sandwich run to cross the plate, so he took it out on the baseball with his bat.

The Illinois recruit struck out 11 batters in five innings and hit a solo homerun to right in the bottom of the fifth, leading Lemont to a 9-1 win.

“I got a little angry,” Ferry said about the bases-loaded mistake. “Put it back up there.”

Lemont (23-8) put pressure on Sandwich (13-16) the entire game with well-placed bunts and blazing speed.

Lemont leadoff hitter Kyle Milinowisch reached on an error to open the game, stole second and third and scored on Kevin Goergen’s RBI groundout, giving Ferry (9-3) a quick lead to work with.

“He’s our best guy and the guys play a little better when he’s on the mound,” Lemont coach Joe Rodeghero said. “He showed today why he’s one of the pitchers in the state. He was very dominant.”

Lemont put four up in the bottom of the third with just two hits — a single by Milinowisch and an RBI single by Goergen.

Gio Schmidt and Ferry drove in runs in the inning as Sandwich booted the ball a couple times, had trouble fielding bunts and even allowed Goergen to score from second on a 4-3 groundout.

“We knew their pitcher was a good pitcher,” Rodeghero said. “We knew he got the ball up there and kept it down. To his credit, he did. We forced them to make plays and that was our scouting report. When we can bunt the ball, we’re more dangerous than what we are.”

Sandwich committed five errors in the game and mustered only three hits off Ferry, who struck out at least two batters each inning, and Jeremy Santiago in relief of Ferry struck out two batters.

Lemont tacked on three runs in the fourth on two more Sandwich errors and a two-RBI single by Schmidt.

“It happens. It’s part of baseball,” Sandwich coach Derek Avery said. “We knew they were quick. A lot of those lefties are already a step or two closer to first base, but it wasn’t really as much the speed as we were not mentally where we were supposed to be. And it’s kind of hard to imagine that this late in the season it would happen, but it did.”

Matt Daly had two singles for Sandwich and Matt Anthenat and Dallas Schroeder one each, but all three struck out twice on the day.

“He was dominant,” Anthenat said about Ferry. “You go in and you know he’s going to throw hard, you know he’s got junk. You just have to stay back in the box and try to hit the fastball when he brings it.”

The defense and lack of offense spoiled a solid pitching performance by sophomore Jake Roehn, who did not allow a hard hit ball all day.

“We tried to stay in the game and keep close until the end and we weren’t able to do that,” Avery said. “Had some mental breakdowns. He threw a heck of a game I thought and didn’t deserve what the results were, that’s for sure.”

Lemont will play Yorkville at 11 a.m. Saturday for the regional title and a berth in the Lincoln Way West Sectional.

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