ALL LEO HOME GAMES ARE PLAYED AT THE KROC CENTER FIELD.
117th and Aberdeen Street
By Dan McGrath
For 6 ½ innings Saturday, one of the more unlikely IHSA Regional baseball champions was on the cusp of being crowned in Chicago Heights.
The Leo Lions, one year into an inexplicable elevation to Class 3-A and winners of only six games all season, took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh against Marian Catholic (19-17), a legit 3-A team with a 2012 state title on its resume along with a runner-up finish in 2017.
But one of the best games the Lions have played in recent seasons would go for naught after the Spartans pulled even with two runs in the bottom of the seventh, forcing extra innings. A bases-loaded single in the ninth then gave the hosts a 5-4 victory and a berth in the Brooks College Prep 3-A Sectional, while Leo closed the books on a 6-22 season.
“I’m as proud of our team as I can possibly be,” Leo Coach Mike Anderson said. “We left it all on the field today.”
Indeed.
While the Lions managed only six hits off four Marian pitchers and left 11 runners on base, they played a near flawless defensive game, offsetting their one error with stellar outfield work by Bryson Glover in left, Tyshawn Brown in center and Joshua Richards in right.
Eddie Hernandez limited the Spartans to two runs over five gut-check innings, pitching around six walks, while Derrick Davis took the hard-luck loss in his fourth inning of relief.
Leo’s problem was two-fold: Matt Gonzalez and Bronx DeBergh.
Gonzalez struck out six in five innings of pitching, went 4-for-4 with three RBIs at the plate and, after moving from the mound to first base, made a spectacular catch of a foul popup down the right-field line with the game tied in the eighth inning.
DeBergh retired the six hitters he faced and struck out two in two innings of relief, then delivered the hit that drove in Chase Boykin with the winning run after Boykin opened the Marian ninth with a solid double.
The Lions were left to lament some chances that got away.
They didn’t score despite a double, a triple and a stolen base in the first inning, denied when Glover was cut down trying to score from third on a dropped third strike.
Kyle Jones doubled home Devin Vassel and scored on Richards’ single in Leo’s two-run fourth. A hit batter, a fielding error, three walks, a wild pitch and Davis’ sacrifice fly gave the Lions a 4-2 lead in the sixth, and they could have used more.
They would manage only one baserunner over the remaining three innings, while the Spartans pulled even in the seventh on doubles by Boykin and Jamison Davis and singles by Gonzalez and Lacey Rogers.
The 4-4 standoff persisted until the bottom of the ninth, when Boykin led off with a double to the left-field wall and took third on a wild pitch. The Lions walked Gonzalez and JR Mackmore to load the bases and set up a force at any base, but DeBergh foiled the strategy by rifling a single into right field.
Ballgame.
“We didn’t finish with the record we wanted, but I can’t put into words how proud I am of you guys,” Anderson told a group of thoroughly dejected Leo players as he shook their hands and embraced them. “It’s been an honor to coach you.”