In a game heard on WEZC and online at dewittdailynews.com, Luke Teschke was sharp over 4 1/3 shutout innings, and the Sages used a big fourth inning to roll Clifton Central 10-0 in five innings from Gibson City in Class 2A regional semifinal action Wednesday.
Teschke struckout nine and was lifted with one out in the fifth inning at 59 pitches. If the Illinois State-commit had thrown 60 pitches, he would be unavailable for Saturday morning's Regional Championship game.
The junior walked one and no-hit the Comets. Spence Mitze struck out one in 2/3 of an inning to close out the win.
Monticello led 3-0 when they exploded for seven runs in the fourth inning. Eli Craft started with a soft line drive base to hit to left. With junior Dylan Brown attempting to bunt, a wild pitch moved courtesy runner Raiden Colbert to second.
Brown ended up drawing a walk, Ike Young then reached on an error when his attempted bunt ended up in a wide throw to third base where Colbert was ruled safe.
With the bases loaded, Biniam Lienhart drew his third walk of the game to bring home a run and run the score to 4-0.
Matt Swartz brought home the next two runs with a base hit to right field to make it 6-0.
Teschke sent a routine flyball to left field that was dropped and scored two more to make it 8-0.
Jacob Trusner brought home the next run with a sac fly to right field to make it 9-0.
Logan Chupp was hit by a pitch and Craft reached again on a misplayed fly ball in right field that brought in the final run of the inning.
Clifton Central ended the inning on a double play when Brown drove a ball to center field where Kankakee College commit Amarion Paxton threw a strike on a line to cut down Chupp tagging from third.
Paxton took the loss on the hill for the Comets.
Lienhart scored three runs and dew three walks in three at-bats for Monticello. Swartz was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs batted in. Teschke, Trusner, and Vance drove in runs for the Sages.
Vance's RBI involved a phenomenal defensive play and piece of base running.
In the third inning, a Teschke run-scoring hit brought in Lienhart for the second time. Sophomore Carter Foran came in to run for Teschke.
After a passed ball moved Foran to second with Trusner batting. Trusner would be hit by a pitch setting up first and second with one out. Vance grounded a ball to the right of second baseman Jayce Meier who slipped fielding it. Falling to the ground, Meier was able to still get the throw to first base and get Vance.
Running hard the whole way, Foran scored from second on the play ahead of a late throw to the plate to make it 3-1.
Clifton Central ends its season 20-7 overall.
Monticello is 21-4 overall. They will play the winner of Thursday's matchup between Tolono Unity and Paxton-Buckley-Loda Saturday morning at 10 am for the Regional championship. It will be the Sages' sixth straight Regional championship appearance. Hear the action on 95.9 FM WEZC and online at dewittdailynews.com.
