St. Joseph baseball on win streak going into IESA Regional Championship
By FRED KRONER
Top-seeded St. Joseph Middle School (11-3) carries a five-game winning streak into Saturday’s IESA Class 2A regional championship game at home against Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley.
The Panthers topped Fisher 12-3 on Tuesday (Sept. 22) in a regional semifinal game while second-seeded GCMS advanced with a shutout victory.
St. Joseph closed the regular season on a strong note.
The Panthers swept a doubleheader from Paxton-Buckley-Loda 7-2 and 14-4 on Saturday (Sept. 12) and then followed up with wins over Champaign Edison, 6-5 on Monday (Sept. 14), and Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, 14-3 on Tuesday (Sept. 15).
Kendrick Johnson and Logan Rosenthal earned the pitching wins over PBL. Johnson yielded five hits, no earned runs and struck out six during his six-inning stint in the opener. Rosenthal fanned two in three innings of the nightcap.
Quincy Jones, Will Haley and Cam Schluter drove in runs in the first game. Landen Butts, Bryson Houchens, Johnson and Holden Brazelton knocked in two runs apiece in the second game.
Rosenthal and Butts scored three runs in the five-inning triumph.
Against Edison, the winning run was plated in the bottom of the seventh. Butts, Houchens and Haley registered two hits apiece.
Rosenthal and Logan Mills scored twice apiece. Haley had two RBI.
Reliever Jared Altenbaumer, who finished with three hitless and scoreless innings, picked up the win.
Jones worked five scoreless innings against GCMS, striking out three.
Butts, Haley and Johnson struck three hits each. Johnson drove in four runs and Houchens scored three runs.
