to the Division 3A state finals on Friday. (Provided photo)
The Marian Catholic High School Spartans baseball team will be competing in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state finals for the Division 3A championship.
A 10-0 win over Solorio Academy on Monday, June 5, got the Spartans to the first game in the IHSA finals. The team will compete at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 9, at Joliet’s Slammers Stadium.
The Spartans (23-14) will take on Champaign Central in the state semifinal contest.
Wyell Woods (two RBI, steal) and Mark DiLuia each went 2-for-3 to pace the Marian offense, the latter singling home Dan Gutierrez (three runs) in the first frame for the only run the Spartans would need.
In the third-inning onslaught, Marian got RBIs from Woods, Nick Bledsoe, Angelo Cantelo, A.J. Anderson, Sean Taylor and Pierce Jones.
Woods singled home Gutierrez with the slaughter-rule clinching run in the sixth, as Marian outhit Solorio, 9-4. Smevoll concluded his gem with five strikeouts.
East Suburban Catholic Conference (ESCC) foe Nazareth was a semifinal victim and the ESCC’s Saint Viator looms as a potential title-game combatant this year. Marian has won five straight.
In Marian’s other IHSA state finals appearance in 2012, the Spartans topped LaSalle-Peru for the 3A crown.